Mennonite Historical Bulletin v. 31 (1970)

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

Vol. XXXI

JANUARY, 1970

No. 1

YOUNG MENNONITE LEADERS

Meimo Simon Steiner (1886-1911), born in Ohio, was a graduate of Biuffton High School. While he was teaching school
(1887-1880) John F. Funk of the Mennonite Publishing House persuaded him to join the firm in Elkhart, Indiana. In 1891-1892
he interrupted his career at Elkhart to take theological training at Oberlin College. In Oberlin he had the above (left) picture
taken. In 1893 he was ordained to the ministry and spent the remainder of his life in Sunday school promotion, evangelism,
mission service, promotion of charitable enterprises, and editorial work. He was the first president of the Mennonite Board of
Missions and Charities serving in that office until his death in 1911.

George Eewis Bender (1887-1921) was born in Maryland. From 1887 on to the end of his life he lived in Elkhart, Indi-
ana, where he worked for the Mennonite Publishing Company and later became the financial agent and treasurer of the Mennonite
Board of Missions and Charities, serving from 1800 to 1920. He was ordained deacon of the Prairie Street Mennonite Church, in
Elkhart, in 1807, serving until his death in 1921. His oldest child was Harold S. Bender, for many years a professor and dean
at Goshen College and Goshen Biblical Seminary. The above picture of G. E. Bender (right) was taken during his early years
in Elkhart. M.G.

Summary of "The Theology and Institution of Baptism
in Sixteenth-Century Anabaptism"

Rollin S. Armour
Th.D. Dissertation
Harvard University, 1963

The first literary defense of Ana-
baptist baptism was composed by
Balthasar Hubmaier. In a series of
tracts which gathered evidence for
believers’ baptism from the New
Testament, patristic writers, and
contemporary figures, Hubmaier de-
veloped three principal theological
arguments for the practice. Firstly,
the gift of salvation assumes the

prior operation of the human will,
an action impossible in infants. Sec-
ondly, since baptism is the believer’s
pledge to the Christian life, it can
be validly received only by those
who have been reborn of the Holy
Spirit, for only God can give power
sufficient for the fulfillment of the
baptismal vow. Thirdly, the exter-
nal ordinances of Christ belong only

to those who possess the inner real-
ity of which they speak; therefore,
Hubmaier concluded, baptism is dif-
ferent from Old Testament circum-
cision, which, because it symbolized
a salvation that was yet to come,
was given to all, young and old.

Hubmaier said that the baptismal
vow ( Geliibde , Pfiicht, Eid ) which
pledged one to God and the Chris-
tian life also pledged the baptizand
to the fellowship and discipline of
the church. This vow, therefore,
was the bond that united the believ-
ers into one disciplined body, and
as such it was the immediate source
of the church’s power to ban.

(Continued on Next Page)

2

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

BAPTISM

(Continued from Page 1)

Finally, using the metaphor of the
threefold baptism in Spirit, water,
and blood, Hubmaier expanded bap-
tism into a symbol which encom-
passed the whole Christian life. It
began in regeneration or Spirit bap-
tism; it was made public in water
baptism; and it was to be lived out
in the struggle against sin in the
baptism of blood, a baptism given in
the persecutions of the world and
fulfilled in the final death and res-
urrection of the body.

John Hut’s baptismal theology
continued several features of Hub-
maier’s thought, but its more char-
acteristic elements came from Thom-
as Miintzer and John Denck. Dis-
tinguishing the Zeichen of outer
baptism from the Wesen of inner
baptism, Hut, like Hubmaier, said
that water baptism bound the be-
lievers into the fellowship of the
church; like John Denck, he called
this baptism a Bund. He also fol-
lowed Hubmaier in using the meta-
phor of the three baptisms to de-
scribe the Christain life, interpreting
the baptism of blood to be suffering,
both spiritual suffering within and
persecution from without. Inner
baptism, “true baptism” as Hut
called it — a conception he derived
from Miintzer and in part from
Denck — was the baptism of redemp-
tive suffering under the tutelage of
the Holy Spirit. A powerful action,
it would bring the soul to full regen-
eration, Gerechtfertigkeit, and there-
by fulfill the earlier forensic Ger-
echtigkeit of the new believer.

Hut’s dependence on Miintzer is
clearly evidenced in Hut’s tract, Von
dem Geheimnis der Taufe, which
appears to be a piece of Miintzer’s
writing edited and interpolated by
Hut. Three principal factors point
to Miintzer: the language of the
tract, the idea of the gospel of all
creatures (which Miintzer derived
originally from Raymond of Se-
bonde), and the theme of the three
levels of inner baptism. However,
the tract’s conception of a covenant
in water baptism and its Anabaptist
interpretation of the Marcan Great
Commission reveal the clear hand of
Hut as the final author.

Like Miintzer, Hut was actively
gathering the elect for the events of
the Last Day. Disillusioned with his
mentor’s attempts to prepare for this
by the renewal of society through a
religio-political Bund of the peas-

ants, Hut turned to the Anabaptist
pattern of small, disciplined congre-
gations gathered apart from the
world through a baptismal Bund of
the believers. The baptism Hut gave
to these converts was not simply an
ecclesiastical Bund to form a gath-
ered church; it was also an eschato-
logical seal which would mark its
recipients as the elect of the Last
Day.

Melchior Hofmann continued the
stress of Hut and Miintzer on the
inner and eschatological baptisms.
Like Hut and Marpeck, and unlike
Hubmaier, he believed that the spir-
itual baptism of regeneration was
accomplished through a lengthy pro-
cess and that water baptism, stand-
ing at a point early in the process,
was the dedication to the full ac-
complishment of the inner renewal.
As in Miintzer, this rebirth was to
take place through the soul’s trans-
versing the wilderness of doubt and
despair. But Hofmann added the
nuptial symbolism of the mystics to
Miintzer’ s view of inner baptism and
thereby interpreted outer baptism as
the plighting of one’s troth with the
Heavenly Bridegroom, a vow to be
consummated in a later union with
Christ in the soul.

Like Hut, Hofmann’s baptism was
filled with eschatological significa-
tion. Believing that redemptive his-
tory was a continuous chain of
events gathered into a series of re-
curring cycles each of which repeat-
ed the pattern of the Exodus, Hof-
mann claimed that persons gifted
with the Spirit of God could discern
the pattern of the “exodus” of their
own “time” and could therefore pre-
dict the events that would bring it
to pass. The final exodus cycle was
about to take place through him, he
believed. One would enter this last
exodus by leaving the Egyptian land
of sin, and by passing through the
Red Sea of water baptism in which
one betrothed and covenanted him-
self to Christ. Then would follow
the experience of the wilderness,
both the wilderness of inner suffer-
ing through the Spirit and the wil-
derness of outer suffering in the
persecution of the last days. The
Promised Land would be reached
internally through the inner union
with Christ in the soul and exter-
nally through the salvation of the
Second Advent. Water baptism was
a covenant toward this end. More-
over, by virtue of its being a repeti-
tion of Israel’s crossing the Red Sea,

water baptism was a reliable sign of
the baptizand’s participation in the
central events of the Last Day, and
thus it confirmed to the baptizand
the certainty of his own salvation.

Pilgram Marpeck, continuing Hub-
maier’s emphasis on covenantal and
ecclesiological baptism, made his
contribution to Anabaptist baptis-
mal theology in two principal areas:
at the point of the question of bap-
tism’s place within the economy of
redemption, and in regard to the
relation of inner and outer baptism.
He resolved the first through the
concept of the covenant. Distin-
guishing the old covenant, the time
of promise, from the new covenant,
the time of fulfillment, Marpeck said
that baptism belonged to the latter
and that it was a symbol of the sal-
vation brought through the new
covenant. As such, baptism was to
be the “covenant of a good con-
science with God.” But since only
believers could make this covenant,
baptism was unsuitable for infants.
In dealing with the second question,
Marpeck attempted to show that the
outer action of baptism performed
by the church, the earthly body of
Christ, complemented and completed
the inner action of the Father and
the Spirit, and that therefore there
was only one baptism which spoke
to the inner and outer aspects of
man. The outer action he called a
Mitzeugnis, for it was parallel to
the inner testimony of the Spirit.

Marpeck also spoke of the three
baptisms, but he interpreted the
baptism of blood to be the inner
regenerative baptism of the blood of
Christ sprinkled on the hearts of the
believer. And yet, like the other
three Anabaptists, he recognized the
baptism of suffering which the
Christian would bear and believed
that water baptism covenanted one
to accept that suffering as a member
of the Body of Christ.

Each of these Anabaptists based
their interpretation of baptism upon
a doctrine of regeneration rather
than on a doctrine of justification.
To this extent it can be said that
the origins of Anabaptism lay with-
in the medieval Catholic tradition of
mystical piety more than in classical
Protestantism, an observation which
finds further support in regard to
south German Anabaptism by the
evidence of Hut’s dependence upon
Thomas Miintzer.

Although each representative Ana-
baptist understood baptism to be the

Tll€ . Mennonite Historical Bulletin is published quarterly by the Historical and Research Committee of Mennonite General Conference
and disti lbuted to the members of the Mennonite Historical Association. Editor: Melvin Gingerich ; Co-Editor: Gerald Studer*
Associate Editors: Ernest R. Clemens, Irvin B. Horst, John A. Hostetler, Ira D. Landis Herman Rood Tnhn nvL m

Stoltzfus, John C. Wenger, Samuel S. Wenger, Lorna Bergey, Wilmer D. Swope. Dues for regular membership ($2.00 per year) contrib-
uting membership ($o.OO per year), or sustaining membership ($25.00 per year) may be sent to the editor Articip« mhi T p -f
should be addressed to the editor, Melvin Gingerich, Goshen College, Goshen IntUana 8 3 “ eWS ltemS

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

3

simple public confession of the bap-
tizand, it was also more than this.
First, baptism contained objective
power: Hubmaier said that it intro-
duced one into the place of salva-
tion; Hut and Hofmann interpreted
it as an eschatological seal or sign;
and Marpeck believed it to be an
outer co-witness of the church com-
plementary to the inner testimony of
the Spirit. Second, baptism was the
bond which united the congregation
of believers together into the Body
of Christ, and as such it was the
Bund which formed the society of
the People of God, marking them off
from the society of the world.
Finally, Anabaptist baptism was a
symbol of the Christian life, for it
looked forward to the subsequent
inner and outer baptism in blood
and the future eschatological bap-
tism in death and in the Final
Resurrection.

A Letter of Gratitude

Lancaster, Pa.

October 16, 1921

To the Mennonite Central
Relief Committee,

When we lay on the Bosphorus,
expelled from our homeland and
without prospects for the future, it
was a deed of neighborly love by
the committee through its chairman

O. O. Miller, to offer us temporary
asylum in Constantinople.

Through your efforts and your
firm determination to continue the
work you have begun, it has been
made possible, with God’s help, that
in spite of great difficulties we have
been able to enter the United States,
where we hope to find a new home.

We herewith express to you our
warmest gratitude, with the resolve
to justify your confidence in us.

Gerhard Lepp, H. Doerksen, H. Rei-
mer, J. Sawatzky, Joh. Loewen,

, G. Becker, P. Lowen, H.

Wedel, H. Heinrichs, I. Dyrksen,

— Hibert, F. Braun, W.

Unruh, H. Epp, H. Richter,

Martens, A. Cornis, John Friesen,
H. Froese, J. Deuss, N. Goossen,
J. Hubert, N. Schmidt, Johann Mar-
tens, Johann Penner, G. Wiens, Joh.
Unruh, I. Wiebe, Henri Dick, Phil-
ippe Isaac, Gerhard Hieberts, John
Schroeder, Ch. Wirberge, P. Hiibner,
W. Hiebert, A. Koop, D. Duck,

, H. Penner, H. Berg,

A. Lepp, H. Dirks, A. Hamm, H.
Brown, P. Frose, D. Wieler, H. Duck,
N. Thiessen, H. Toews, A. Renpen-
ning, Jacob Huebert, John Thiessen,

Nicolai Epp, P. — , Jakob

Sawatzy, J. Sawatzky, I. Derksen,
Johan Giesbrecht, A. Klassen, Nik.
Esau.

Acquisitions Added to the Historical Library
Christopher Dock Mennonite School

Mennonite Home , Souderton:
Miscellaneous Books.

From:

Franconia Congregation:

Saur Bible, 1776 Edition.

Alms Book, 1756-1947.

Martin Luther Bible, 1847.

Towamencin Congregation :

Copy of Diagram of the church
property showing location of the
meeting houses built in the years
1764-1805-1862.

List of 89 names who subscribed
to the rebuilding of the meeting
house destroyed by fire in 1805.

Historical and Research ,

Goshen , Ind .:

In German Jacob Mensch Minutes
of the Franconia Conference 1880-
1906 copied from original by John C.
Wenger.

Schwenkfelder Library ,

Pennsburg, Pa.:

Photostated copy of the 1773 let-
ter to the Holland Mennonites from
Franconia Conference signed by:
Andres Zeigler, Isaac Kolb, and
Christian Funk.

Montgomery Co. Historical Society:

Baptismal Records of Lutheran
Congregation, New Hanover, Pa.

Mrs. Wellington Cassel:
Miscellaneous Books.

Roosevelt Leatherman:

1. Lampeter, Lancaster Co. Print-
ing of Martyrs Mirror.

2. Booklets — Elkhart Printings.

Mr. & Mrs. Kepner Gottschalk,
Richwood, N. J.:

History of Montgomery County,
Vol. III.

Boorse Family History.

Miss Priscilla Delp:

Lapp Family Bible.

Jesse Mack Family:

2 Bibles.

Raymond Hollenback:

History — Royersford Church of the
Brethren, 1893-1968.

Amos Strite:

Mennonite Bishops, Ministers and
Deacons of Washington-Franklin Co.
Conference.

Abram Hunsicker:

A hand made display cabinet for
to be placed in the school library for
to acquaint the students with the
materials in the Historical Library.

Preacher Henry Wismer — Skippack:

Box of records, deeds, wills, let-
ters, home wine receipts and etc.

Items of interest:

A horse and buggy trip to Lancas-
ter Co. May 27, 1870.

Materials used and cost of build-
ing his house in 1853.

Trip to York Co., no date. Of in-
terest of this trip is the fact that his
wife must have recorded the events
because wherever they had a meal
it is mentioned what they had set
before them.

John E. Lapp:

Minutes of Mennonite Central
Committee 1963-1966.

Miscellaneous and Anonymous
Donations:

Family Histories: Cassel, Moyer,
Swartley-Rosenberger, Detwiler.

Books :

Eine Restitution — Henrich Funk
1763.

Letters and Manuscript Papers:

From Jacob Beery, Pleasant Town-
ship, Fairfield Co., Ohio to Abraham
Keil, Doylestown, Pa., Oct. 8, 1828.

From John F. Funk, Elkhart, Ind.
to Mary Bower, Boyertown, Pa. The
lot contains 18 pieces of quite inter-
esting correspondence which includes
a personal letter from Funk to Mrs.
Bower.

B. Official notice of the Mennonite
Publishing Co. going into receiver-
ship Jan. 21, 1904 and again in April
1925.

C. Financial Statements of Men-
nonite Publishing Co.

From Preacher Henry Wismer ,
Skippack , Pa. Collection:

1. Henry Wismer to John F. Funk,
Elkhart, Ind., June 2, 1873.

2. Henry Wismer to Samuel Lan-
dis, Quakertown, Pa., March 20, 1875.

3. Henry Wismer to Harold-der-
Wahrheit, no date.

4. Paul Thomsehke to Henry Wis-
mer, no date.

5. Jonas Wenger Breslau, Water-
loo Co., Ont., to Henry Wismer, in-
complete, no date.

6. Salome Bergey, Bergeytown,
Ont., to Henry Wismer, pages 3 & 4,
remainder lost.

(Continued on Page 4)

4

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

DOCK LIBRARY

(Continued from Page 3)

Three Letters from Sterling ,
Whiteside Co., Illinois:

1. Anna D. Wismer Fry to Mrs.
Henry Cassel — Skippack, Aug. 29,
1864.

2. & 3. Abraham and Barbara Cas-
sel to Mrs. Henry Cassel — Skippack,
Nov. 28, 1872 and Jan. 22, 1873.

Two papers with paragraphs dated
1828 to 1837 belonging to some one
who knitted fish nets and fish bags to
fit over barrels.

Mr. & Mrs. Abram Landis ,
Harleysville, Pa.:

Jacob Jantz — Spring Valley, Mc-
Pherson Co., Kansas to Samuel
Landis — Salford, March 12, 1878.

Projects Completed During
Past Year:

Completed having all the Gospel
Heralds bound. It is now in the
Historical Library a complete set of
Heralds bound in books from start-
ing with Vol. I, April 4, 1908 to the
end of the year 1967.

Placed on Microfilm the following
records:

Skippack Alms Book; Franconia
Alms Book; Clemens Record and
Account Book; Salford Trustee Rec-
ords; The Oberholtzer Group Con-
stitution; Minutes of First Sunday
School Convention of Eastern Dis-
trict Conference; 1854 Charter of the
Christian Society, Freeland (Col-
legeville) Pa.; 1854 Minute Book of
the Church Council of the Christian
Society, Freeland, Pa.; 1854 Organi-
zation of the Freeland Sabbath
School. John F. Funk’s name ap-
pears in this record as a Sunday
School teacher.

Some interesting facts discovered
during past year relating to the
Franconia Conference:

1. From the Clemens Record and
Account book: the year in which
the second meeting house at Salford
was built.

2. From the record book of Joseph
Overholt — Plumbstead Township,
carpenter. In building the Deep
Run Meeting house of 1873 the
names of persons, number of days
each worked, wages paid each man
and other costs involving the build-
ing of this meeting house.

3. In both the Skippack and Fran-
conia Alms Books: money was
loaned to individuals for the purpose
of them going to Philadelphia and
paying the passage of those who
sold themselves to the captains of

ships who promised to bring them
to America.

4. Weaving records from Henry
Wismer: Bucks County account

book: a study of woven coverlets
made by the late Guy F. Reinert and
printed in Volume XIII of the Penn-
sylvania German Folklore Society,
covers a period beginning approxi-
mately 1830. Wismer records show
that he was weaving coverlets as
early as 1773 and until 1795 he wove
over 250 of them. Here we have
records that coverlets were woven
60 years earlier than Mr. Reinert
had found. This record book shows
where Wismer has drawn 27 differ-
ent designs of various coverlets. His
record also shows that he was a
physician, dentist and veterinary
surgeon. His charges for these ser-
vices was:

Blood letting cure 6^ per person
Tooth pulling 6^* per person

Mr. Raymond Hollenbach,
Royersford, Pa.:

Again this year Mr. Hollenbach
has given much to the Historical
Library in the way of translating
from German and arranging them in
loose leaf the following:

1. Skippack Alms Book, 1738-1954.

2. Franconia Alms Book, 1756-
1947.

3. Clemens Record and Account
Book, 1849-1857.

4. Henry Wismer’s Account Book,
Bucks Co., Pa., 1768-1800.

5. Abraham Wismer Manuscript
Papers, Bucks Co., Pa., 1794-1829.

6. Gottschalk Gottschalk, Weaver
Account Book, Frederick Township,
Montgomery Co., 1788-1798.

7. Henry Kolb, Blue Dyer Ac-
count Book, Skippack, Pa., 1813-1826.

8. Minutes of the Franconia Con-
ference recorded by Jacob Mensch,
1880-1906.

9. Pre. Samuel Godshall, Deep
Run, Pa. Journal of a journey to
Canada, 1869.

10. Pre. Henry Wismer, Skippack,
Pa. Account Book.

11. Miscellaneous Papers, pertain-
ing to the separation of the Menno-
nite Church in 1847.

12. Proceedings of the Eastern
Pa. Conference of the Mennonite
Church, 1872-1884.

Genealogical Arrangements: By
Raymond Hollenbach:

1. From the files of Mary Latshaw
Bower Collection:

A. Amos Shontz Family, Venan-
go Co., Pa.

B. Latshaw Family, Barkeyville,
Butler Co., Pa.

C. Bieri (Beary) Family in North
Coventry.

D. Latshaw and Related Families
in Vincent.

2. Descendants of Frantz Latshaw,
Herford, Banks Co.

3. Descendants of Jacob Landes
who settled in Franconia Township
and died in 1749 (Alderger, Allabach
and Jacob Landes).

4. Descendants of Frederich Al-
derfer.

5. Descendants of Christian Alla-
bach.

— Wilmer Reinford
Creamery, Pa.
November 24, 1968.

Mennonites in Ohio 1967

Wilmer D. Swope

Beachy Amish Mennonite 758

Church of God in Christ

Mennonite 103

Conservative Mennonite 1,324

Conservative Mennonite Fel-
lowship, non-conference. 477

Evangelical Mennonites 1,076

General Conference Menno-
nites 2,668

Mennonite Christian Brother-
hood 20

New Reformed Mennonites. . 3

Ohio and Eastern Conference. 9,370

Old Order Amish 7,392

Old Order Mennonites 328

Reformed Mennonites No Report

Unaffiliated Mennonite
Churches (Bethel, 69;

Oak Grove, 369) 438

Virginia Mennonite

Conference 264

(Compiled from 1967 24,221

Mennonite Yearbook )

News and Notes

Daryle E. Keefer, Professor of
Secondary Education, Southern Illi-
nois University, Carbondale, Illinois,
recently completed a study of “The
Education of the Amish Children in
Lagrange County, Indiana.” It con-
sists of a 100 page mimeographed
booklet.

The Williamson Mennonite Church,
Williamson, Pennsylvania, observed
its centennial anniversary on Octo-
ber 4-5, 1969. Among the speakers
was J. C. Wenger of the Goshen Col-
lege Biblical Seminary faculty. An
eight page booklet printed for the
occasion contained several pages of
historical information.

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

The Ruth Family

Albert John Ruth

(Below is part of the history of
the David Ruth family as written by
him and his wife Katherine Strohm
Ruth. The history is deposited in
the Bethel College Historical Li-
brary, North Newton, Kansas. It
was translated into English by his
son Jacob E. Ruth, who also added
interpolations. The Ruths had mi-
grated from the Rhineland district
in Germany to Upper Bavaria in
1819 where they bought a farm
named “Eichstock” in the District of
Dachau. Around 1850 their friends
and relatives began to emigrate to
America and in 1852 the David Ruth
family too sold their farm and left
for America. The record is an ac-
count of the trip and their settle-
ment near West Point, Lee County,
Iowa, which is the very southeastern
county in the state, and the first
years in the settlement. The story
of the settlement in Iowa is given
below. It was prepared by Albert
J. Ruth, St. Louis, Missouri. M.G.)

“While on the overland journey to
Burlington, Iowa, Marie the young-
est was taken ill and also our father
Strohm was very weak, so at Peoria,
we had a Doctor treat them both,
but his treatment had no affect for
the betterment. From Peoria we
went by stage to Burlington, Iowa
(Railroads were few there in that
western country, for Illinois was
west then) .

There we engaged teams and
Farmers who brought us to West
Point, Lee County, Iowa.

Our chests, (there were 12 or so
about two by two by five feet) we
left in Peoria, and then hired some
teams in West Point, Iowa, to go and
get them.

On Monday evening the twenty
third of August 1852 by candle light
we arrived at West Point, Iowa.
Many friends and acquaintances sur-
rounded and welcomed us and how
pleasant was the feeling and knowl-
edge that we finally had reached the
end of our one-fourth year long,
tiresome and trying journey. We
recruited a house in West Point and
lived there until January the sev-
enth, 1853.

On the tenth day we lived at West
Point, father Strohm died quite sud-
denly, which we surely did not an-
ticipate, for after being so weak
during the journey and the first few
days after we arrived at West Point,
he began to feel better but on Sep-
tember the second, 1852, at noon, he
died quite suddenly. Dropsy had
evidently hastened his death, con-
nected with his weakness due to old

age. He lies buried in the Metho-
dist Cemetery at West Point, Iowa.

A gravestone with his name, John
Strohm, and date of his death, marks
the grave. He was born on July
the sixteenth in the year of 1781.

The disease of our child, Marie,
continued to get worse; she did not
like to take medicine the Doctor
prescribed for her. All the rest of
us were ill; John and Barbara had
the ague for three months and not
until after three months, when we
moved out to our farm, did they get
well entirely. Sister Leisy had a
fever for a long time, but finally got
well again and the rest of us soon
regained our health again. With the
exception of our Marie, who for the
first weeks we were in West Point,
had the ague but soon after, it be-
came dropsy and suffered much un-
til on December ninth when she de-
parted quietly at seven o’clock in
the evening. Her earthly remains
lie buried by the side of Grand-
father Strohm at West Point.

She was born on October the
twenty eighth, 1850, at Eichstock,
Bavaria, and was two years old at
the time of her passing away.

John Ruth bought his farm on
December the twenty-seventh, 1852,
and moved there at the end of
March.

On December the twenty eighth,
1852, we bought our farm of 200
acres, 105 acres fenced and under
cultivation and 95 acres of timber
land for $2,400.00.

On January the seventh 1853 we
moved here and began in the name
of God our Saviour to farm on our
new home. Up to April the seventh
of that year, we lived with the
American Family from whom we
purchased the farm when they
moved to Oregon. There were nine
of us, plus the Family of McQuire
from whom we bought the land. We
all lived in the one story brick house
of three rooms and a hallway; I do
not know how many there were in
the McQuire Family.

Mother with her two sisters and
their husbands went to St. Louis to
visit friends there, and they re-
turned home safely on April the
tenth.

Soon after, I became ill with
the ague and was afflicted with this
most of the summer, even long after
the disease had practically ceased,
yet after each physical exertion I
had pain in my joints and weakness
in general.

In January 1853, brother-in-law
Kraemer bought a farm and moved
upon it on the eighth of February.

Brother-in-law Leisy did not like
it here and decided to move to Illi-
nois and left in May with his wife
and household goods for there. He
bought a farm near Lebanon, Illi-
nois. (really near Summerfield.)

On the twentieth day of June
1853, brother-in-law Peter Strohm
arrived here from Germany. We
had hoped dearly that brother Hen-
ry would also come along, but he
did not, it is so, and he is there
and Leisy is in Illinois, only God
knows, and I say nothing.

(About in February 1853 our Su-
san had a disease of the breast but
it soon became well again. On May
the twenty ninth, Dahlems came
from Germany).

He went to Summerfield, Illinois,
and on the way to St. Louis on the
steamboat from Keokuk, when they
were only a few miles from St. Lou-
is, lost their son Daniel, who fell
into the river and was drowned.

Beginning of July our friends
from Illinois came, namely, Michael
Kraemer, his wife, and his youngest
daughter, Pletscher, Christian Baer
and Jacob Lehmann from Bavaria,
who had all come across the ocean
with Peter Strohm, and who re-
mained in St. Louis with his broth-
ers-in-law. After these had visited
the friends here and they were on
their way home, brother-in-law
Leisy’s brother John accompanied
them to go to his brother in Illinois.
A few miles from Keokuk, while on
the steamboat on its way to St. Lou-
is, he met his death in the waves of
the Mississippi River.

Our harvest this year, was very
good, considering the poor prepara-
tion of the land due to the extreme
amount of rainfall this spring.
Spring wheat, corn and oats yielded
a good crop, also our fruit orchard
yielded a hundred and seventy
bushels of apples plus the clover we
cut. In general, we have had very
much to be thankful for to God,
since our arrival here. Praise be to
his name, who blessed us in earthly
goods. Oh, that our hearts may be
turned to him, and we receive his
spiritual blessing fully too, for if
we do not let his goodness toward
us lead us and make us thankful,
he will come with the rod, so we
give the Creator thanks for all. If
only it will lead us toward our eter-
nal home in heaven.

On the fourth of October, 1853,
our son Gerhard Benjamin was born
to us.

End of March, brother-in-law Pe-
ter Strohm and I, went to Illinois to
visit our relatives and returned
safely. My brother-in-law Peter
had been complaining prior to this

(Contineud on Page 6)

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

RUTH FAMILY

(Continued from Page 5)

time and he became gradually
worse and it developed he had con-
sumption, and though the Doctors
spoke hopefully of his recovery he
kept getting worse until on August
the sixteenth the Dear Saviour took
him home. He is happy in his heav-
enly home, but it was a severe blow
for his sorrowful wife and five minor
girls. The Lord, however, will take
care of the widows and the orphans.
Father and his word are sure and
true, Amen.

The fruit crop in our orchard this
year was very light. The harvest
was medium. In this year 1854 our
Church was begun in Franklin
Township (About twenty one miles
from us by the highway) upon John
Kraemer’s land. The same year, we
built a stone house upon our home
place, in addition to the brick house.
It cost $160.00 not counting the cost
of our labor.

This was the driest year since we
came here and the heat was unheard
of.

In the spring of 1855 brother-in-
law Kraemer with others, among
whom was our Susan, were in Sum-
merfield, Illinois, to visit. On April
the eighteenth and nineteenth, a
thunder-storm with hail passed over
us and nearly all of our windows
were ruined, in fact all on the west
and north sides of the house. Sev-
eral barns and homes were unroofed,
but the grains in the fields were too
small to be damaged.

In this year on September the
eighth 1855 our son Christian Eman-
uel was born but after ten weeks
which were a time of suffering for
the mother and child, the Lord took
the latter to his eternal home [rest]
on November the sixteenth 1855, and
a few days later namely on Novem-
ber the twenty sixth, John Ruth was
taken home, after eight days of se-
vere and painful illness. His disease
was a combination of pneumonia and
Typhoid Fever. He left his widow
and the seven children.

In this year, in spite of the lasting
dry weather, we had an extraordi-
nary fine harvest to hope for but it
was the all wise Father’s will, to let
us see the possible fine crops in view
and then to take it away to show us
that it is not due to our skill, so
that we might not boast of our skill,
while all the credit for our good
crops is due to him to whom honor
is due.

About two weeks before the har-
vest a small insect that they called
bugs [probably chinch bugs] came
in millions and covered the ground,
even in the houses they covered the
walls, and we were all inclined to

feel sorrowful, for they reminded us
of the Egyptian Plague. They at-
tacked the very fine looking stand
of wheat and in a few days, sapped
this so that it lost its strength,
bleached to a deadly color and it
soon was evident that only a few
grams remained in the heads. This
was not general throughout this sec-
tion; our farm, seemed to be one of
those most afflicted. Oats, too, yield-
ed but a very little, but we had some
pretty good corn that produced an
abundant return.

About harvest time, a continuous
wet weather set in, so that it was
difficult and tiresome to harvest and
take care of the grain. But thanks
and praise be to the Lord, for he
has kept us and taken care of us and
his will be done with us in the
future.

Our orchard in this year yielded
so well that we could sell $115.00
worth of apples plus those we had
for our own use in the winter
months.

At the end of October 1855, I and
brother-in-law Kraemer were again
in Illinois to visit. Ague was preva-
lent there, also in Iowa; there were
some cases more than in other years,
but not nearly as many as there
were in Illinois.

The winter of 1855 and 1856, was
the first fearfully cold winter since
we came here. The snowdrifts cov-
ered staked and ridered rail fences
until people drove diagonally across
the fields regardless of the rail
fences.”

HORSCH ESSAY CONTEST

Two awards were made in the
high school division of the John
Horsch Mennonite History Essay
Contest for the school year 1968-69.

Class IV

First: “The Chestnut Ridge Menno-
nite Church: From William
Westhafer to the Present,” by
Janice Witmer.

Second: “The History of the Longe-
necker Mennonite Church,” by
James Swartzendruber.

The writers were enrolled in Cen-
tral Christian High School, Kidron
Ohio, when they wrote the essays!
The Longenecker Mennonite Church
is located at Winesburg, Ohio, and
the Chestnut Ridge Mennonite
Church at Orrville, Ohio.

Melvin Gingerich

The eighteenth Menno Simons
Lectureship was presented at Bethel
College, North Newton, Kansas on
October 26-29, 1969, on the subject
“Reformation and Revolution.”

Mennonite Hymnwriters

SAMUEL FREDERICK COFFMAN
1872-1954

Wilmer D. Swope

The son of preacher John S. and
Elizabeth Coffman was born near
Dale Enterprise, Rockingham Coun-
ty, Virginia, on June 11, 1872. He
married Ella Mann on November 20,
1901. They were the parents of five
children, all born at Vineland, On-
tario, Canada.

He was converted at meetings held
by his father John S. Coffman and
baptized May 26, 1888. A talented
minister and church leader, he was
ordained to the ministry April 21,
1895, by bishop John F. Funk of
Elkhart, Indiana. On September 26
1903, he was ordained bishop at
Vineland, Ontario.

Among S. F.’s labors and serv-
ices rendered in the Old Mennonite
Church was his contribution in the
field of music, both as music editor
and hymn writer. He served as a
member of the Music Committee of
Mennonite General Conference from
its inception in 1911 until 1947 and
also served as Hymn Editor of the
Music Committee during which the
following books were published:

I. Church Hymnal, 1911.

II. Life Songs, 1916, Co-editor.

HI. Songs of Cheer for Children
1927.

IV. Life Songs 2, 1938, Editor.*

Chester K. Lehman, Harrisonburg
Virginia, says of S. F. Coffman, “I
have some very precious memories
of serving with brother Coffman on
the Music Committee. It was my
privilege to work with the commit-
tee during the last week of its work,
c. 1923. I did not become a member
of the committee until 1925.” 1 2

Samuels father, John S. Coffman,
was gifted in music and conducted
singing schools in Virginia, doing
much to stimulate four part singing
and a better type of church music.
Two of John’s hymns are found in
the Mennonite Church Hymnal, 561
“O Weary Wanderer,” and 637 “Oh
The Bliss of Loved Ones Resting.”

S. F . Coffman’s Hymns

1. IN THY HOLY PLACE WE BOW

“The hymn IN THY HOLY PLACE
was definitely connected with fath-
er’s study of 'The Tabernacle’ which
was a favorite subject of his. And I

1 Mennonite Encyclopedia, Vol. IV.

2 July 18, 1968 letter, Chester K Leh-
man, Harrisonburg, Va. to AVilmer U
Swope.

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

7

think I can recall him saying that it
was written either during his jour-
ney to visit the Mennonite congre-
gations in Alberta and Saskatche-
wan in the year 1901 or while he
was there.” * 3 “I recall his saying
that we needed more hymns on wor-
ship. He felt that there are some
precious associations between Chris-
tian public worship and that of the
temple worship, Accordingly he
built this bridge from temple wor-
ship to that of our worship,” 4 wrote
his son.

In Thy Holy Place is set to music
composed by J. D. Brunk and first
appeared as hymn 434 in the Church
and Sunday School Hymnal with
Supplement, 1902. It next appeared
as hymn 165 in Church Hymnal,
1927, and also as hymn 43 in Songs
of The Church, 1953.

2. WHEN CHRIST BEHELD IN
SIN'S DARK NIGHT

A hymn devoted to the ordinance
of the Devotional (prayer) Veiling,
it may have originated from the
Winter Bible School at Kitchener,
Ontario. 5 * It first appeared as hymn
442 in Church and Sunday School
Hymnal with Supplement, 1902.
Here the hymn appeared with three
verses of eight lines. The hymn
next appeared as hymn 330 in
Church Hymnal, 1927, set to the
music of hymn tune, Bartholdi L. M.
by Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy. In
the 1927 Church Hymnal it appeared
with five verses of four lines.

3. WE BLESS THE NAME OF
CHRIST THE LORD

This is a hymn on Baptism. “He
(Coffman) felt that the church need-
ed more hymns centering in Ana-
baptist believer’s baptism.” 0 It may
have been written at the suggestion
of the Music Committee of General
Conference, working on the Church
Hymnal, 1927. 7 This hymn is set to
the hymn tune Retreat L. M. by
Thomas Hastings, and first appeared
as hymn 323 in Church Hymnal
1927. It appears as hymn 172 in
Church Hymnal, 1953, published by
the Mennonite Brethren Church. It
also appears as hymn 167 in Chris-
tian Hymnal 1959, published by the
Church of God in Christ Mennonite.
This hymn is one of the few, per-
haps the only Mennonite hymn to
appear in a hymnal used by larger
denominations. It is found in the
Service Hymnal, 1952, as hymn 152

s June 26, 1968 letter, John E. Coffman,

London, England to Wilmer D. Swope.

4 Op. cit., Lehman to Swope.

5 Op. cit., Coffman to Swope.

0 Op. cit., Lehman to Swope.

7 Op. cit., Coffman to Swope.

published by the Hope Publishing
Co. This hymnal is used in Baptist
circles.

4. EXTOL THE LOVE OF CHRIST

“He (Coffman) realized the short-
age of hymns devoted to the ordi-
nance Footwashing.” 8 “I have a
faint suspicion, which has its roots
in father’s having said something
about it, that the two hymns Extol
The Love of Christ and We Bless
The Name of Christ The Lord were
written at the suggestion of the
Committee working on the Church
Hymnal 1927. The committee may
have expressed a desire to have
some Mennonite expression on these
two ordinances,” 9 wrote his son.

It first appeared in Church Hymn-
al, 1927, as hymn 325, set to the
music of George F. Root’s hymn
tune Varina C.M.D. It is also found
as hymn 173 in Christian Hymnal,
1959, of the Church of God In Christ
Mennonites. Extol the Love of
Christ appears in the Mennonite
Hymnal, 1969, as hymn 410 and is
set to the fine old German hymn
tune Ellacombe C.M.D. 10 The Men-
nonite Hymnal, 1969, is a joint ven-
ture of the (Old) Mennonite Church
and The General Conference Men-
nonite Church. The printing was
done by Herald Press, Scottdale,
Pennsylvania.

— Leetonia, Ohio

8 Op. cit., Lehman to Swope.

0 Op. cit., Coffman to Swope.

10 Mennonite General Conference Proceed-
ings, August 24-27, 1965, page 72. Xerox
copy, Herald Press, Listing of the Index
of First Lines and tunes of The Mennonite
Hymnal to be published in August 1969 by
Herald Press, Scottdale, Pa. 156S3 and
Faith and Life Press, Box 347, Newton,
Kansas 67114. (September 1968).

Mennonite Research
News and Notes

Melvin Gingerich

Ada Kadelbach is spending sev-
eral months at Bethel College, North
Newton, Kansas, to continue her re-
search for a doctor’s thesis at the
University of Mainz. Her field of
study is the acculturation that oc-
curred among Germans who settled
in America. She has taken as her
area of specialty the hymns used by
Mennonites in America.

A family history published recent-
ly is entitled Abfaham P. and Eliza-
beth (Luginbuhl) Lehman and Their
Descendants. A Family History from
March 1819 to December 1964. The
authors are Elma Bixler and Paul

Bixler. Copies of this approximate-
ly 300 page book may be obtained
for $5.00 from Mrs. Reuben Bixler,
Route 2, Orrville, Ohio 44667.

The Sturgis, Michigan, Daily Jour-
nal in its November 25, 1968, issue
featured the centennial year of the
Pleasant Hill United Missionary
Church of Branch County, Michigan,
near Bronson. The church was
founded by Mennonites from Fair-
field County, Ohio, among them the
Beery and Kreider families. In 1883
the church became officially a Men-
nonite Brethren in Christ congrega-
tion.

The Midway Mennonite Church,
Columbiana, Ohio, on June 29, 1969,
celebrated the 100th anniversary of
the building of the second Ober-
holtzer meeting house in 1869 (now
Midway). J. C. Wenger was the
speaker for the occasion.

Lucille M. Good in August 1950
published Elias M. Gingrich Descen-
dants. The booklet was printed by
Elam H. Hirneisen, 27 Lincoln Ave-
nue, Ephrata, Pa. Gingrich was born
near Elmira, Ontario, and died in
Lancaster County, Pa., in 1940. He
and his wife are buried in the Pike
Mennonite Cemetery near Ephrata,
Pa. In March 1888 the family moved
to the frontier in northwestern Iowa,
where they resided 27 years. In
1915 they moved to Pennsylvania.

The Libertarian Press, Glen Gard-
ner, New Jersey, published in 1954
Harry A. Wallenberg, Jr.’s Whither
Freedom? A Study of the Treat-
ment of Conscientious Objectors in
the United States during World
Wars I and II and Its Relation to
the Concept of Freedom. It is avail-
able from the Fellowship of Recon-
ciliation, for 25 cents.

James Landing has recently pub-
lished the following four items of
interest to Bulletin readers:

1. American Essence: A History
of the Peppermint and Spearmint
Industry in the United States. Con-
tribution of the Kalamazoo Public
Museum, Kalamazoo, Michigan, 1969.
Contains a number of references to
Amish and Mennonite involvement
in the mint industry.

2. “Exploring Mennonite Settle-
ments in Virginia,” The Virginia
Geographer, vol. 4, no. 1, pp. 6-12,
spring, 1969.

3. “The Amish and Mennonite
Settlement at Nappanee, Indiana,”
Family Life, Aylmer, Ontario, Can-
ada, vol. 2, no. 6, June, 1969.

4. “Geographic Models of Old Or-
der Amish Settlements,” The Profes-
sional Geographer, vol. 21, no. 4, pp.
238-243, July, 1969.

8

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

Book Reviews

The Old Colony Mennonites. By

Calvin Wall Redekop. Baltimore,

Md.: The Johns Hopkins Press.

1969. Pp. 302. $10.00.

The semi-communal Old Colony
Mennonites provide the sociologist
and anthropologist a case-study par
excellance in the dilemmas of ethnic
minority life. The author tersely
describes his central theme thus:
“Resistance to assimilation into the
host society by a minority.” This
branch of the Mennonite Church is
scarcely one hundred years old but
numbers over 35,000 persons living
in Canada, Mexico, British Honduras
and Bolivia. Dr. Redekop’s analysis
encompasses the history of the
group, their underlying philosophy,
its internal power structure, and the
mores by which the Old Colony is
governed, including its economic
assets and liabilities, and the migra-
tions by which it has sought to
maintain its isolation. The irony of
its plight is that it is threatened ex-
ternally on the one hand by the out-
side society which it admittedly
needs to a limited extent while, on
the other, it is threatened internally
by the disenchantment of its young
and the rapid loss of its agrarian
base.

Calvin Redekop will be known to
most readers of this bulletin as a
member of the tradition of which
the Old Colony is a branch. He is
currently Professor of Sociology and
Anthropology at Goshen College.
This book is the result of his exten-
sive field research in various Old
Colony settlements.

Many things about this book de-
serve special mention: the fifteen
richly variegated appendices all in
English translation, two groupings of
fine photographs, twelve tables and
4 maps and charts. The chapters
are generously documented and
illustrated by quotations gathered
from Old Colony leaders and mem-
bers. The text is eminently read-
able, even fascinating. Redekop has
done for this sub-group in the Ana-
baptist Mennonite tradition what
Hostetler and others have done for
the Hutterites and Amish.

The author seems undecided as to
the prospects for the survival of the
Old Colony Mennonites, stating dog-
matically on one page that they will
face extinction in the foreseeable
future yet leaving the question open
on the next. While his final chapter
is a most provocative summary and
analysis of ethnic minority life, it
seems not to have been sufficiently
“smoothed out” in that it repeats a
significant quotation in a footnote on
a page following that same quota-

tion’s appearance in the text, beside
a tardy recognition in a footnote of
the development and influence of
those Negroes taking a kind of se-
cessionist stance, not to mention
slightly contradictory characteriza-
tion of the Old Colony group as an
isolationist, yet not an isolationist,
group.

Redekop’s definition of an ethnic
group is commendably discriminat-
ing and his discussion of the prob-
lems in defining such a term is both
lucid and perceptive. It is unfortu-
nate indeed that this work should be
marred by at least three rather seri-
ous typographical errors and sur-
prising that the Johns Hopkins Press
should be guilty of this.

A footnote of 8 words, namely,
“Material gathered by the author
during field research” turned from
being annoying to ad nauseum as its
occurrence multiplied to the point of
170 times in the course of 243 pages.
Sometimes there were as many as
five of these identical footnotes on a
single page. It seemed to this read-
er completely unnecessary from the
very beginning since every state-
ment, by so well qualified a scholar,
and not just those so footnoted, is
assumed to be based on material
gathered by the author during his
research!

Then too the bibliography proves
quite incomplete since books and
articles alluded to in footnotes or
text are frequently not to be found
in the cumulative bibliography at
the end of the book. In one case an
article is cited by title and author
without reference of any kind as to
where it may be found. In a very
few cases the quotation given in
illustration and/or documentation of
a point being made seemed not to
accomplish its intended purpose.
Finally, does Redekop really mean
that “conformity does not need ad-
monition” or that because the world
as seen by the Old Colony is “hell-
bent” it is outside God’s concern or
care?

In spite of these criticisms, this
book nevertheless offers a superb
description and analysis of a whole
constellation of the dynamic forces
at work chastening, if not destroy-
ing, all serious experiments in Chris-
tian community. —Gerald Studer

Guide for Writing the History of a
Church. By Davis C. Woolley.
Nashville, Tenn.: Broadman Press.
1969. Pp. 60. $1.25.

Celebrating Your Church Anniver-
sary. By Alvin D. Johnson. Val-
ley Forge, Pa.: Judson Press. 1968.
Pp. 95. $2.50.

These two books could, along with
the counsel of the Executive Secre-

tary of the Mennonite Historical and
Research Committee, prove im-
mensely helpful to any congrega-
tion planning a celebration of an
anniversary, provided they are read
by the appointed persons at least a
year or more in advance of the
event. While these books were pre-
pared for the Baptist denomination,
there is much to commend them to
those of other denominations and
the adaptations necessary are
obvious.

Woolley gives some important
warnings such as the one cautioning
any congregation against the uncrit-
ical acceptance of a history of a
church written by an interested
individual as a personal project
without it having been requested
and supervised by the proper Com-
mitee. I would differ with the
author in his judgment that an
anniversary might well be cele-
brated every five years; it would
seem that every 25 years would be
more realistic. His suggestion to
devote a session in the training of
new church members to the history
of the local fellowship is a good one
as well as the recommendation that
the anniversary committee stipulate
clearly in advance the honorarium
to be paid to the writer.

Johnson is convinced that an anni-
versary celebration can provide as
excellent an occasion for spiritual
renewal as it does for reviewing and
honoring the past. This is a com-
mendable objective indeed and these
pages keep this in view as they pro-
ceed to give concrete help on each
facet of the planning for such an
event. I was somewhat surprised
that he failed entirely to include
what might be called an historical
tour in his list of ways in which the
history could be highlighted. The
Scottdale Mennonite church’s 175th
anniversary program in 1965 includ-
ed such a tour with considerable
effectiveness. I cannot share the
author’s enthusiasm for the memori-
alization of outstanding people of
the past by the purchase and in-
scribing with suitable words of such
items as communion plates, hymn-
books, pulpit furniture, etc.

— Gerald C. Studer

Mary E. Hooley and her sister
Besse King of Goshen, Indiana, re-
cently deposited with the Archives
of the Mennonite Church a rich col-
lection of Joseph Allen Hooley
(1854-1933) and Catharine (Hooley)
Hooley (1855-1932) materials, in-
cluding old account books, deeds, in-
ventories of personal possessions, and
other records. They are classified
under Historical Manuscripts 1-389.

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

Vol. XXXI

APRIL, 1970

No. 3

ONTARIO MENNONITE FAMILY AROUND 1900

This is the family of Joseph Kolb (1839-1905) and Nancy (Stauffer) Kolb (1843-1915) taken in Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario,
when their daughter, Mrs. George L. Bender from Elkhart, Indiana, was visiting her parents. From left to right: Mrs. Nancy Kolb,
Irvin, Lucinda, Elsie (Mrs. G. L. Bender), Oliver, and Joseph Kolb. Mr. and Mrs. Kolb were married October 18, 1868. The Kolbs
came to Pennsylvania as early as 1707 and their descendants have been prominent leaders in the Mennonite Church in America. The
above photograph is in the Mrs. George L. Bender rich picture collection recently acquired by the Archives of the Mennonite Church. M.G.

The Chestnut Ridge Mennonite Church:
From William Westhafer to the Present

Janice Witmer

It was in the year 1830 that an
ordinary-looking covered wagon
rolled into Ohio. It was ordinary
in appearance, perhaps, but its occu-
pants were destined to become im-
portant to the future of Mennonite
churches in Wayne County. William
and Magdalene Westhafer, with five-
year-old son Benjamin and eighteen-
year-old daughter Catharine, settled
on the farm now owned (1969) by
Heber Good, located three-fourths of
a mile east of the present Martins
Church building near Orrville, Ohio. * 1

1 Milton Falb, Martins Church History,
(1965), p. 1.

A Mennonite settlement had already
been started in this area, four miles
south-east of Orrville, a few months
before the Westhafers arrived. All
of these settlers were from Lancaster
County, Pennsylvania, and of Swiss
and German descent. Being experi-
enced farmers, they were attracted
to this area by the fertility of the
soil and the abundance of chestnut
trees. 2

As the Westhafers traveled down
a narrow dirt road (now Church
Road) , it is said that Catharine

2 Ibid., p. 1.

Westhafer pointed to the woods be-
side the road and half- jokingly re-
marked that she never wanted to be
buried in such a wilderness. Later,
this very area was cleared to build
the Martins Church and a cemetery,
which served the whole community.
Ironically, Catharine Westhafer was
the first person to be buried in the
new cemetery, after she died of
scarlet fever in 1832. 3 It was said
by the pioneer settlers that rocks
were placed on the grave to prevent
wolves from digging up her body. 4

William Westhafer was born in
1785 near Fairmount in West Earl
Township, Pennsylvania. He became
a Moravian minister in the Groffdale

3 From her tombstone in Martins Church
Cemetery.

1 Interview with Harry Landis.

(Continued on Next Page)

2

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

CHESTNUT RIDGE

(Continued from Page 1)

district in 1810, after the death of
Bishop Burkholder. He also preached
in private homes in the Metzler com-
munity, long before the first house
of worship was erected there. 5 In
the spring of 1826 he moved from
his Fairmount farm to Cumberland
County, Pennsylvania. He stayed
there for only four years before
coming to Ohio. While still in Penn-
sylvania he married a Mennonite girl
and was disinherited. 6 He was then
ordained a Mennonite minister be-
fore settling in Ohio with his family.

One of William Westhafer’s broth-
ers, Conrad Westhafer, was a, coach-
man for President George Washing-
ton. Not much is known about Con-
rad except that which is enscribed
on his tombstone in Liditz, Pennsyl-
vania. 7

Since William Westhafer had al-
ready been ordained in Pennsylvania,
he was selected to minister to- the
settlers in the area. He held church
services in his home until 1834, when
Martins Church was built. He was
the first minister to hold services in
Baughman Township, Orrville, Ohio. 8
Henry Martin, Jr. assisted Westhafer
in the preaching at Martins, which
was all done in German.

In 1851, William Westhafer died at
his home at the age of sixty-six. His
son Benjamin had married Susanna
Wenger on July 27, 1849, just two
years before William’s death. Adam
Brenneman replaced William at Mar-
tins Church, becoming the second
minister there. 9

The original tract of land on which
Martins Church was built was deed-
ed by Henry Martin in December,
1836. 10 * The present building is lo-
cated on this original tract. The
first building was constructed of
logs, and was approximately thirty-
five feet wide and seventy feet
long. 11 The pulpit was built on the
same level as the rest of the sanc-
tuary. Immediately in front of the
pulpit was a singers table where the
song books were kept and the sing-

5 M. G. Weaver, Mennonites of the Lan-
caster Conference.

G Milton Falb, Martins Church History,
(1965), p. 1.

7 Interview with Harry Landis.

8 Milton Falb, op. cit., p. 1.

9 Ibid., p. 2.

10 Milton Falb, Martins Church History,

(1965), p. 1.

^Ibid., p. 1.

ers were seated. The congregation
sat on backless benches behind the
singers table. Later the log build-
ing was replaced by a larger struc-
ture which also had backless bench-
es. One of my grandmother’s ear-
liest remembrances was how the
babies would fall asleep on these
narrow board benches during the
church services, and would occa-
sionally interrupt the service by
falling, screaming, to the floor. 12 *

Abram Rohrer was ordained by
Isaac Nolt in the Westhafer home in
1836, as the first bishop of the Wayne
and Medina County district. Bishop
Nolt was the only Mennonite bishop
in Ohio at this time, and he was so
old and feeble that it was necessary
to build a bed on a wagon with a
roof over it to bring him the sixty
miles to the Westhafer home. 13

Problems began to arise in the
next generation at Martins thirty
years later, when the request was
made to have part of the worship
service in English. The more con-
servative members protested because
they considered this to be “worldly,”
so nothing more was said about this
issue for a while. But the requests: for
Sunday School and evening services
added still more pressure for chan-
ges in the old ways. This dissatis-
faction was solved when the Wisler
doctrine, started in Elkhart County,
Indiana by Jacob Wisler, spread to
Ohio. 14 This doctrine opposed
change, and Sunday Schools in par-
ticular. The majority of the mem-
bers at Martins Church and both of
the ministers there united with this
new Wisler group and kept the old
ways, firmly denouncing Sunday
Schools. They built the Chestnut
Ridge Church, one fourth mile east
of Martins Church on a ridge of land
surrounded by beautiful chestnut
trees. This original building is still
used regularly for church services,
however all of the chestnut trees
died in 1925-1930 when a blight
killed all chestnut trees in the East. 15

The Martins Mennonite Church
has been classified as the parent
church from which grew three other
area churches — namely, Pleasant
View, North Lawrence, Ohio; Salem
Mennonite, Wooster, Ohio; Orrville
Mennonite, Orrville, Ohio. The Mar-
tins Church cooperated with the

12 Interview with Harry Landis.

13 Milton Falb, op. cit., p. 2.

11 Milton Falb, Martins Church History
(1965), p. 2.

15 Interview with Harry Landis.

Oak Grove Church, Smithville,
Ohio in establishing other Orrville
churches. 16

In 1872, the Pleasant View congre-
gation also began to have disagree-
ments over certain issues, and some
church members became influenced
by the teachings of Jacob Wisler, as
were those from Martins Church.
These who followed Wisler broke
away from the original group and
built the County Line Church, which
is on the dividing road between
Wayne and Stark Counties in Ohio.
The Chestnut Ridge Church and the
County Line Church found that they
had many beliefs in common, so they
joined to accommodate the Orrville
congregation of Wislers. For many
years, these Wislers used one meet-
inghouse one Sunday and the other
the next Sunday. But soon after
1950, various factors led to disagree-
ment. Sentiments were divided over
a case of marital difficulty in the
Medina County congregation of Wis-
lers. 17 (Relatives of those involved
in the marital dispute attended the
Orrville Wisler congregation.) The
church members began to take sides
on the issue. At this same time,
some members became dissatisfied
with not having Sunday School,
probably as a result of revival meet-
ings held in the area by George
Brunk, Jr. and Lawrence Brunk.
Inevitably, the Orrville Wislers were
split, and Harry Landis, a former
deacon of the Orrville Wislers, with-
drew from the Wisler Conference
with approximately forty laymen. 18
This new congregation used the
Chestnut Ridge Church for worship
services by agreement with the Wis-
ler Conference, and in 1953 affiliated
with the Virginia Conference. The
Virginia Conference was selected
because its more conservative beliefs
coincided closely with personal con-
victions of the forty laymembers. 19
The other members of the Orville
Wisler Church retained the County
Line Church and still hold services
there, without Sunday Schools or
electricity.

For several years, the congregation
at Chestnut Ridge had no permanent
minister. Visiting ministers or James
Stauffer or Louis Amstutz (the latter
two are of the Sonnenburg Menno-

16 Milton Falb, op. cit., p. 2.

17 Harold S. Bender, Mennonite Quarterly
Review , (Mennonite Historical Society : 1958)
Vol. 32, p. 233.

18 Ibid., p. 233.

19 Interview with Maxine Landis Witmer.

The Mennonite Historical Bulletin is published quarterly by the Historical and Research Committee of Mennonite General Conference
and distributed to the members of the Mennonite Historical Association. Editor: Melvin Gingerich; Co-Editor: Gerald Studer*
Associate Editors: Ernest R. Clemens, Irvin B. Horst, John A. Hostetler, Ira D. Landis, Herman Ropp, John S. Oyer, Grant M.
Stoltzfus, John C. Wenger, Samuel S. Wenger, Lorna Bergey, Wilmer I). Swope. Dues for regular membership ($2.00 per year), contrib-
uting membership ($5.00 per year), or sustaining membership ($25.00 per year) may be sent to the editor. Articles and news items
should be addressed to the editor, Melvin Gingerich, Goshen College, Goshen, Indiana.

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

3

"Memories of the Old Log Church" — Midway Church

Samuel D. Culp

nite Church at Kidron, Ohio) would
take turns preaching at Chestnut
Ridge. 20 Frank Nice was ordained
in 1955 to preach in the new congre-
gation, and is still the pastor there.
Clayton Swartz entruber also served
as pastor of the Chestnut Ridge
Church for several years, while
Frank Nice was at Eastern Menno-
nite College in Harrisonburg, Vir-
ginia obtaining further education.
My grandfather, Harry Landis, with
the assistance of newly-ordained
Truman Steiner, is deacon at Chest-
nut Ridge. The present church at
Chestnut Ridge of which I am a
member, has a membership of 85. 21
T'his number has doubled in the past
fifteen years, since started by the
forty laymen in 1953.

A lot has happened since William
Westhafer preached to his small con-
gregation of pioneers in the log
building surrounded by wilderness,
some 130 years ago. Six congrega-
tions have developed from this
thirty-five by seventy log structure.
Although the Westhafer name is
now extinct in this area, quite a few
of the members at Chestnut Ridge
Church are descended from William.
Tracing the Chestnut Ridge Church
back to the Westhafer family has
had special significance for me, since
my family attended the early
churches founded by Westhafer, in-
cluding the original log church, the
next, larger Martins Church built in
1901, the present Martins Church,
County Line Mennonite Church, and
presently, Chestnut Ridge Mennonite
Church.

20 Harold S. Bender, op. cAt., p. 233.

21 Interview with Frank Nice.

The Allensville Mennonite Church,
Allensville, Pa., celebrated its cen-
tennial on August 30-31, 1969. A
booklet of twenty large pages con-
taining many pictures of its build-
ings and ministers was published
for the occasion. John A. Hostetler
presented the “Historical Highlights”
of the congregation’s history in the
public program.

Wayne Edgar Miller received his
Ph.D. degree at the University of
Michigan in 1969 in the field of edu-
cation. His dissertation was written
on “A Study of Amish Academic
Achievement.” Among his advisors
was Professor John A. Hostetler of
Temple University.

Der Heimatstelle Pfalz, Kaisers-
lautern, Germany, published in 1964
Fritz Braun’s Auswanderer Auf Dem
Schiff “Samuel M. Fox .” This ship
reached New York August 4, 1852,
and carried many German Menno-
nite families who later settled in Lee
County, Iowa.

My friends, I do wish I were ten
years younger for this service. I
believe that I am about the only one
that attended the church north of
the cemetery. However, it may be
possible that Emma Riehl or Lydia
Spannabel might have been in that
church when they were quite small.
But as my recollections come to me
on such things, it is almost impos-
sible to tell you what the church
looked like and what kind of people
were in that church. As I go through
this job of mine I want you to ex-
cuse old age. I remember how the
old church looked. It was a log
church. It had two doors on the
east side; two windows on the south
side; one window on the west. And
there was a little room built on the
north side of the main building,
which they called their council
room. It was about ten by twelve
feet in size. That had one window
and the main church had another
window on the north side. Now
that is my memory of the old church,
the outside of it. The inside of the
church — they had a stove in the cen-
ter of the church — a wood stove that
burned wood. They had no pulpit
in the church. They had no elevated
rostrum; all stood on the first floor.
They had a table and at the back of
the table there was a plank seat
where the ministers sat and the dea-
con occupied that seat. The minis-
ter’s name was Jacob Kolb and the
lay minister or assistant was Trevor
Basinger. The deacons were David
Weaver and Christian Lehman. The
audience seats were made of two by
twelve inch planks. They had no
backs to them, so it took very much
energy to come to church and listen
to long sermons. The services of the
church were such that they com-
menced with a song and then one
minister would read a chapter of the
Bible and then they would go into
silent prayer. After silent prayer,
the other minister would take a text
and deliver quite a lengthy sermon.
Before that, however, after the
prayer service the preacher began
the sermon by reading the text and
he would deliver that sermon. Now
my memory is a little short and you
must excuse me.

As for the appearance of the peo-
ple, the sisters wore very plain
clothes. Their clothes were without
any style, you might say, made of
very plain clothing, made neatly.
They had a cape over their shoul-
ders fastened with hooks and eyes.
The men also wore very plain cloth-
ing. Their clothing was all made of

very plain cloth — all made alike.
They also had hooks and eyes, no
buttons on the sisters or the breth-
ren. However, the men were not in
style because they wore hats.

The services were something like
this. The preacher would preach
the sermon. After this sermon, each
one of the deacons (there were two
of them) would give testimony as to
the truth and as they understood the
Bible themselves.

The transportation, however, was
rather crude. The fathers and moth-
ers would take our families to
church in a two horse wagon. Oth-
ers would come horseback and walk-
ing. At that time, however, we had
two-toned vehicles, too. We had a
white and black horse hitched to the
wagon, which would transport the
family to church. If, however, Dolly
had a colt, a brown or a chestnut, we
had a three-toned vehicle.

Now, as I was a boy from seven to
nine years old, there was nothing
more to interest us boys. Therefore,
we came there more for curiosity
than for the service. I remember
three or four, maybe five black wal-
nut trees growing on the lot. And
across the road from the church was
a big piece of timberland. In that
timber-land were a great many
squirrels— there were the red squir-
rels, grey squirrels and fox squir-
rels. I suppose they came there
every day instead of just on church
days, but they were there on church
days and it was very amusing for us
young boys when the squirrels
hopped from one limb to another.

Now about that time, Brother Bix-
ler came upon the scene. He put
new life into the church. He be-
lieved in mission work; he also
believed in preaching the English
language. Before that everything
was German. He believed in preach-
ing in English to English-educated
people; he believed in Sunday
schools; he believed in young peo-
ple’s singing. Now singing was
something that was not very good
in the old church. They were sing-
ing by memory. They had no music
as we call it — staff, or anything to
guide them — what we might say,
soprano, alto, no bass, no tenor, all
what they called plain singing. I
well remember when our assistant
superintendent’s grandfather taught
the first singing after this church
was built (Isaac Cullar) and he cre-
ated such a stir among the young
people that music was very much
(Continued on Page 4)

4

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

MIDWAY

(Continued from Page 3)

encouraged. We had very good sing-
ing from that time on in our church.
I remember when Brother Bixler
went about to organize the Sunday
school in 1872 or 1873. I remember
that I was in the first Sunday school.
I remember from that time on how
the Sunday school advanced. It was
perhaps four or five years that they
had Sunday school that Brother Bix-
ler conducted. Then they decided to
have a superintendent elected. Abra-
ham Nold of the Leetonia Church was
our first superintendent in our Sun-
day school. At that time this church
here was called the Oberholtzer
Church. The North Lima Church
was called the Metzler Church and
the Leetonia Church was called the
Nold Church and when these chan-
ges were made I cannot tell.

I will leave you for this time. My
time is very short. I thank you.

(From a tape recording at a
program given at Midway
Mennonite Church, Columbi-
ana, Ohio, September 7-8,
1957.)

Samuel D. Culp

Samuel D. Culp, of Columbiana,
Ohio, was born October 8, 1860, in
Beaver Township, Mahoning Coun-
ty, Ohio. He was the son of Joseph
and Mary Bixler Culp. His great
grandfather Michael (Kolb) Culp
and great grandmother Magdalena
Rhodes moved from Rockingham
County, Virginia, to near Mason-
town, Pennsylvania, later to Beaver
County, Pennsylvania, then to Ma-
honing County in 1812. Samuel’s
mother was a sister to Bishop Joseph
S. Bixler of Mahoning County, Ohio,
and a niece of Bishop Joseph Bixler
of Mercer County, Pennsylvania,
also a niece of Bishop Nicholas John-
son of Masontown, Pennsylvania.
Joseph and Mary Bixler Culp had
twelve children, eleven sons and one
daughter. Two of the children lived
to be centenarians. They were Nan-
cy Culp Harrold, born January 30,
1850, and died February 17, 1950,
and Samuel D. Culp, born October 8,
1860, and died December 7, 1960.
Samuel attended Germantown
School, a one room country school
in southwestern Beaver Township.
The school was formerly known as
Mellinger’s School. The name Ger-
mantown was suggested for the
school by Samuel’s father. On
Christmas 1884 Samuel married
Mary Matilda Feicht. There were

four children, one son having died
in infancy.

Samuel was engaged in several
business endeavors: he ran a saw
mill for a while, in addition to farm-
ing. He organized the Island Tele-
phone Company at North Lima,
Ohio. He was active in Sunday
school work, and served as a teacher
for forty years, and several times as
superintendent. He joined the Men-
nonite Church in his youth and was
a member until his death in Decem-
ber 1960. Because of his foresight
land was purchased for a new cem-
etery at the Midway Church. I re-
member him as an alert, well in-
formed person who had the welfare
of the church at heart. He had a
remarkable memory and was the
source of many historical facts con-
cerning the Mennonite settlement in
Columbiana and Mahoning counties.
His talk at the Commemorative Ser-
vices at the Midway Mennonite
Church at the age of 97 was indeed
an accomplishment; his address was
of a quality which a much younger
person could wish to attain. He re-
membered that during the eighteen
seventies a Russian Mennonite fam-
ily stayed in his parents’ home for a
year before going on to Kansas.

Wilmer D. Swope

Proceedings of the
Cultural Problems
Conference

Melvin Gingerich

Copies of the Proceedings of the
Sixteenth Conference of Mennonite
Educational and Cultural Problems
are available from Professor J. How-
ard Kauffman, Goshen College,
Goshen, Indiana 46526. The confer-
ence was held at Hesston College,
June 8, 9, 1967, and was the last one
in a series, as the Conference has
been discontinued because its func-
tions have been assumed by other
agencies. This last issue is especial-
ly helpful because it contains an in-
dex for the entire sixteen volumes.
The first of the volumes covers the
Conference held at Winona Lake,
Indiana, in 1942. During the sixteen
sessions of the Conference a surpris-
ingly large variety of topics have
been treated by Mennonite scholars.
As the earlier reports are now out
of print, the entire series will be-
come a collector’s item as libraries
and scholars attempt to complete
their sets.

Although a wide range of topics
were treated at the Hesston confer-
ence, several of the major papers

dealt with foreign service experience
and personnel, as related to service
projects of the Mennonite Central
Committee, the Mennonite mission
boards, and the study abroad
programs.

The latest issue was edited by
J. Howard Kauffman, the secretary
of the organization. It contains 184
pages and sells for $1.50.

Mennonite Research
News and Notes

Melvin Gingerich

Mark Caldwell is writing a disser-
tation under Professor Hinton at
Southern Baptist on “Typology of
Monasticism Compared with Evan-
gelical Anabaptism.”

Esther Rupel is continuing her
study of the history of the Church
of the Brethren costume. This will
be a doctoral dissertation at Purdue.

Freed Mclntire, 2480 Azelda Ave-
nue, Columbus, Ohio 43211, is work-
ing on the history of the Mennonite
minister John Freed and his de-
scendants. He is eager to receive
any pertinent information from
readers of the Bulletin.

Alfred Polzin is writing a mas-
ter’s thesis at Eastern Baptist Semi-
nary in Philadelphia on the history
of the Germantown Mennonite
Church in Philadelphia.

Arnold Nickel produced a 207 page
study in 1969 at the San Francisco
Theological Seminary, San Anselmo,
California, on “General Conference
Mennonite Mission and Service Per-
sonnel in Overseas Ministries.”

Mervin D. Zook completed an M.A.
thesis at Indiana University in 1969
on “Measurement of Attitudes To-
ward Religious Conscientious Objec-
tors in Selected Magazines of World
War II Years by Evaluative Asser-
tation Analysis.”

Michiana, the Sunday magazine of
the South Bend, Indiana, “Tribune”
in its issue of September 28, 1969,
had an article on “Preserving Amish
History,” by Judith Lowery. It ex-
plains “Amish Acres,” an 80 acre
farm on U. S. 6 just outside of Nap-
panee, Indiana, which is being de-
veloped as a tourist attraction. A
four-page article, it has six large
pictures.

The United Air Lines Mainliner
magazine of September 1969 feat-
ured the “Pennsylvania Dutch Coun-
try.” Pictures of farm scenes as
well as the text stressed the Amish
culture.

The American Oil Motor Clubs
magazine Adventure Road in its Fall
1969 issue contained several out-
standing color pictures featuring
Amish life and culture.

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

5

History of Mennonites
in Canada

Frank H. Epp

A Joint Committee of the Menno-
nite historical societies in Manitoba
and Ontario has undertaken to pre-
pare and publish a history of Men-
nonites in Canada by 1974. The
help of various people, including
graduate research assistants, is being
utilized to complete this project
within the time that has been set.

A “research awards” budget has also
been set up, and it is this matter
about which I am writing at this
time.

The Joint Committee is prepared
to pay from $25 to $100 for quality
term papers on subjects useful to
the writers of the history of Menno-
nites in Canada. The enclosed copy
of a news release giving suggested
dissertation topics is some indication
of our need. Some of these topics
can be broken down and otherwise
adapted to term papers.

To further indicate the possibili-
ties, I am attaching a supplemental
list, which too can be expanded and
adapted to suit a person’s particular
interest and/or the available re-
source materials.

Hopefully, this letter will come to
the hands of Mennonite professors of
various disciplines (theology, his-
tory, sociology, ethics, economics,
psychology, etc., etc.) so that the
widest possible research possibilities
may be tapped herewith.

Please address inquiries to the ad-
dress given below. The author
would prefer to have at least the
first communications come from the
supervising professor. I would be
pleased also to be advised of helpful
term papers that may already have
been completed in the recent past.
Frank H. Epp, 1830 Kilborn Avenue,
Ottawa 8, Canada.

SUGGESTED AREAS
OF RESEARCH AND WRITING
QUALIFYING FOR
RESEARCH AWARDS

(History of Mennonites in Canada)

1. Mennonite theology/ethics as re-
flected in the sermons /writings
of such men as A. H. Unruh, C.
F. Derstine, S. F. Coffman, Da-
vid Toews, J. G. Rempel, P. J.
Schaefer, J. H. Enns, C. C. Pe-
ters, F. C. Peters, J. A. Toews,
J. B. Martin, etc., etc., etc.

2. Mennonite theology /ethics as
reflected in devotional materials,
sermons, and other study articles
in such papers (for given peri-

ods of time) as: Der Bote, Men-
nonitische Rundschau, Christian
Monitor, Ontario Mennonite
Evangel, MB Herald (Mennonite
Observer) , Konferenz Jugend-
blatt, YP Messenger, The Cana-
dian Mennonite, Christlicher Fa-
milienfreund, The Recorder, The
Voice, etc., etc.

3. Trends in Mennonite theology/
ethics reflected in the programs
of annual conferences.

4. The theology of Canadian Men-
nonite broadcasters.

5. What did Mennonite papers
and/or spokesmen have to say
on such subjects as: World War
I, World War II, Eschatology
and the “prophetic word”, the
depression of the 1930’s, church
school education (with reference
to particular schools or in gen-
eral), Jews, interdenomination-
al and interracial marriage, the
importance of language, etc., etc.

6. Analysis of standing columns
and/or sections in various of our
publications, i.e., “Comments on
World News” in Christian Mon-
itor, 1930-1954.

7. The stories of Mennonite mil-
lionaires (individuals, business-
es, or in relation to certain
communities) .

8. Histories of non-Mennonite con-
gregations in non-Mennonite
communities.

9. Histories of Canadian Mennonite
church divisions for whatever
reason.

10. Histories of English-language
congregations.

11. The stories of particularly
creative/innovative congrega-
tions, individuals, organizations,
schools, etc.

12. The rise and/or fall of certain
Mennonite schools.

13. Membership of non-Mennonite
background in certain selected
Mennonite congregations.

14. Membership of Mennonite back-
ground in certain non-Menno-
nite congregations.

15. Marriage patterns in recent dec-
ades in selected congregations
and/or communities.

16. Social welfare policies in given
Mennonite communities.

James Melton, a Ph.D. candidate
at Ohio State University, is research-
ing “Mental and Physical Health
Conditions Among the Amish.”

Another Sleeping Preacher

Levi D. Miller

Whatever views some men may
have regarding the phenomena of a
man preaching in his sleep in an
unconscious condition, there certain-
ly is something strange in the fact
that now not less than four different
persons in so many different locali-
ties, have been taken in the same
way and acting in a similar manner
have made solemn declarations of
gospel truths while in this uncon-
scious condition.

A correspondent of Holmes Co.,
Ohio, sends us an account of one
John Opliger, a young man of about
27 years of age, who for the last
three or four years has been in the
employ of Samuel Mast, of Berlin
Township, who about the first of
August last was taken with this phe-
nomena, and preached in an uncon-
scious condition every evening for a
period of about three months.

In the evening, a short time before
beginning to speak, his eyes closed
so that he could not open them, but
was able to walk about some. On
this account he was frequently
obliged to do without supper until
his eyes again opened, which was
a while after his discourse was
finished.

After he had been preaching every
night for about three months, he
made it known that he would now
preach once a week, and also that
on a certain evening he would open
his eyes while in this unconscious
condition. This caused a large gath-
ering of people, and his eyes were
opened that evening just as he had
said.

In giving out the hymn which he
desired sung before he spoke, he
would always mention in what book
the hymn was to be found, as the
book that was used in the usual ser-
vice or the book that was taken to
Sunday School.

He preached many nights while
lying down. Afterwards he an-
nounced that on a certain Sunday
evening Jesus would put him on his
feet to preach; as Jesus said to Saul,
“But rise up and stand on thy feet:
for I have appeared unto thee for
this purpose, to make thee a min-
ister and a witness both of these
things which thou hast seen, and of
those things in the which I will
appear unto thee.” Acts 26: 16.

On the night indicated he rose to
his feet and spoke very rapidly for
an hour and a quarter, part of the
time in the English, and part of the
time in the German language. Near
the close of this sermon, as in every
sermon after this, he announced two
(Continued on Page 6)

6

MENU" ONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

SLEEPING PREACHER

(Continued from Page 5)

hymns, which were to be sung by
the audience, and a minister present
was requested to pray. In announc-
ing the hymn, he referred to the
book in which it was found, and
repeated the first verse. It was the
hymn “Jesu, Jesu, Brunn des
Lebens.”

He is an uneducated man, but on
this night preached a very excellent
sermon. He preached very earnestly
and could be heard quite a distance.
He took no text, but spoke chiefly
on swearing, drunkenness, gambling,
quarrelling and fighting, and warned
the people, exhorting them to repent
and be baptized, and said one bap-
tism was sufficient.

In one of his sermons he remarked
that he thought the people were get-
ting better than they were before he
commenced to preach; that where
swearing used to be heard in the
neighborhood, it was not heard now,
and it is known that many have
made a change for the better. He
also said that unless the people
would mend their ways: he would
have to preach a long time, and that
he could not warn the whole world;
that there was only a small portion
that he was to warn.

He warned the people very ear-
nestly of their sins, telling them that
before the flood God gave the people
120 years to do better, and as they
did not the earth was destroyed bv
a flood.

Many people came to hear him;
especially on the evening on which
he had announced that he would rise
to his feet to speak, the people could
be seen coming from all directions;
the whole neighborhood was dotted
with lanterns. All were anxious to
hear and see. When the time for
speaking came, every eye was fas-
tened on him; some were frightened,
and some heard what they had not
expected. At the close of the ser-
mon he repeated a few lines of
poetry, which closed his sermon, and
as he said “Amen,” he dropped sud-
denly on the lounge.

He had been preaching some six
weeks before it became known to
the neighbors. As soon as it was
known, large numbers gathered at
the house each evening. They came
early, even before his eyes closed.

As soon as his eyes closed, he would
lie down. He could tell who was
present without seeing them; could
tell how many were outside when
they could not all get into the house,
and many other singular things man-
ifested themselves, which are not all
written. The doctors could not cure
him. One who had been treating him
was rewarded for his efforts by be-

ing called a “provoking soul” in his
patient’s sermon. It is understood
that this doctor remarked that while
he had these attacks one of his limbs
could be amputated without disturb-
ing him.

The last evening he spoke he again
opened his eyes. Nos. 2, 5, 10 and
15 from Gospel Hymns were to be
sung, and while the last was being
sung, as he had before announced,
his eyes opened and remained open
until all the people had passed by
him. J

Levi D. Miller, of Berlin, Holmes
Bo., Ohio, says in regard to this cir-
cumstance: “In the morning he felt
well. About three o’clock in the
afternoon he began to have pains
and quiver; about six o’clock his
eyes would close and he would lie
down. In about an hour he would
give out a hymn, sometimes from
one book and sometimes from one
another. After the people had sung,
he would rise to his feet and preach
as above stated.

“He did not pray himself, but be-
tore he closed his remarks he would
give out a few more hymns and tell
the assembly to pray before they
separated; that they should pray for
him and for every one. If they did
not sing the hymn that he gave out,
he would tell them so. I would say
Despise not prophesyings: prove all
things; hold fast that which is
good.’ ”

Herald of Truth (Elkhart, Ind )

Jan. 15, 1882, p. 23.

Hans Herr House Given a
Special Wyeth Touch

The historic Hans Herr House was
painted this week by Andre W. Wy-
eth, one of America’s best known ar-
tists, and the work will be used to
raise funds for the restoration of the
Willow Street landmark.

Wyeth slipped into Lancaster un-
announced Wednesday, captured his
subject in water color on a 14 by 20
inch sheet of textured paper, and
then left the treasure, in a simple
cardboard folder, with Mrs. Robert
Welk. The latest work of the Chad-
dis Ford, Pa., artist, which is valued
at $20,000.00, was turned over to H
Elvin Herr, of Willow Street, who is
chairman of the Hans Herr Resto-
ration Committee of the Lancaster
Mennonite Conference Historical So-
ciety. Herr is a neighbor of Mrs.
Welk, and that painting is now in a
vault.

Basis for Print

The painting is to be used as the
basis for a color print in a mono-

graph on Hans Herr, written by
John C. Wenger, a Mennonite his-
torian.

Wyeth is on the advisory commit-
tee for the restoration project. He
will retain title to the painting but
has donated the reproduction rights.

The painting shows the famous
house in a stark winter setting.
There is fresh snow on the black
roof and snow on the ground. Close
beside the house is a lone leafless
tree. Those familiar with Wyeth’s
American style work would recog-
nize the artist’s painting without
seeing his name in the bottom right
corner.

Sough! Freshness

“I wanted to capture the freshness
of the house in a brief sketch right
there on the spot,” Wyeth said Fri-
day. I wanted that damp feeling,
the way the building soaked up that
marvelous rich Pennsylvania earth
on a rock formation that came right
out of the ground.

“The building is all askew, there’s
not a straight line in it. It has been
molded by the earth and the weath-
er. I wanted to make a fresh state-
ment of it just as it is, not prettify

Two other sketches of the Hans
Herr House, done years ago by Wy-
eth, are reproduced in a book of his
works. A Wyeth painting of the up-
stairs fireplace in the home is now in
the Corcoran Art Gallery in Wash-
ington, D. C.

Wyeth is himself related to the
Herrs through marriage.

The artist will be honored by
President Nixon next Thursday in
Washington, D. C, at a dinner open-
ing a show of Wyeth works at the
White House.

— From the Daily Intelligencer
Journal , Lancaster, Pa.,
February 14, 1970

A one-page article on “Antiques,
Auctions and Pottage,” by Dr. Cor-
nelius Krahn, is available for ten
cents from the Historical and Re-
search Committee, 1700 South Main
Street, Goshen, Indiana 46526. This
article is a significant guide on what
to do with old books, antiques, and
family letters and records.

Rhoda H. Campbell has written a
52 page booklet on the Byerland
community and the Byerland Men-
nonite Church in Lancaster County,
Pennsylvania, which carries the title
Out of the Silent Past. It contains
maps, photographs, and sketches.
The booklet may be obtained from
Mrs. David S. Wenger, 1926 West
Willow Street Pike, Lancaster, Pa.
17602. It was printed in 1950. The
account is well documented and con-
cludes with a one page bibliography.

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

7

Book Reviews

The Gentle People, A Portrait of

the Amish. By James A. Warner

and Donald M. Denlinger. New

York: Grossman Publishers, Inc.

1969. Pp. 186. $20.00.

This may well be the most exten-
sive and skillfully executed collec-
tion of pictures ever published on
the Amish. Many of these are
printed with a texture that reminds
one of old linen and produced by a
screening process. Most of the pic-
tures are in full color and full page.
The book is one of handsome pro-
portions (ll 1 ^ by 8 V 2 inches).

According to the jacket, photog-
rapher Warner entered into his
chosen task with great patience and
a deep respect for the integrity of
The Gentle People. He did not trick
them into poses or take their pic-
tures without their knowledge or
consent. He combined his knowl-
edge of the techniques of the old
master artists with the warmth, love
and admiration he has for the Am-
ish. The strong cross lighting, deep
backgrounds and warm colors re-
mind one of Rembrandt. The pic-
tures reveal an unusual sensitivity
so that one has the impression he is
looking at a work of art such as an
oil painting or an etching. The pic-
tures are not cropped to produce a
desired effect but rather are creative
compositions in themselves.

On the lower right hand corner
opposite the picture in each case is
a Scripture verse as a suggestive
caption or word-equivalent of the
photograph. Usually they are quite
appropriate though in a few in-
stances they seem stilted.

There is a brief essay introducing
each major section of photographs.
These essays are written by Donald
M. Denlinger and bear the sub-titles,
The Gentle People, Amish Home
Foundations, Little Red School
House, Entertainment, Courtship
and Weddings, Ordnung (Rules for
Living), and Blessed Earth and
Farming. These essays, unfortu-
nately, are not of a comparable lit-
erary quality to the artistic quality
of the pictures. The information
given is reasonably good but marred
by inept expressions, poor translite-
ration of German words, a few in-
acccuracies, and some typographical
errors (Hi-German for High Ger-
man, the word elaborency is coined,
Ashbund for Ausbund, Lieder Saum-
lunger for Liedersammlung, Heb.
134 for Heb. 13:4, the reference
James 1:27 for what is II Cor. 6:14,
and in speaking of horses, Belgium
of Clydesdale instead of Belgium or
Clydesdale) . Several times reference
is made to the origination of the

Amish in the late 15th century when
it should be 17th century. Hope-
fully these and other inaccuracies,
poor word choices and expressions
may be corrected when this first and
relatively small (5,000 copies) edi-
tion is reprinted.

A few of the pictures are some-
what inconsistent with the claim and
intention of the book. This may be
accounted for in part by the fact
that Lancaster County, Pa. has so
many varieties of Amish and Men-
nonites. Buttons and rick-rack ap-
pear on a few garments, one girl is
wearing a turtleneck sweater and
another a flowered dress, and in
several instances the people are un-
doubtedly Mennonite rather than
Amish.

The color reproduction is excel-
lent. The book is a sheer delight to
browse in and ponder the photo-
graphs and the captions accompany-
ing them. The price is high but not
surprisingly in consideration of the
color and number of photographs
skillfully reproduced. Here is a
beautiful gift item and a memento
or an introduction to a fascinating
religious group showing remarkable
strength for its small numbers.

— Gerald C. Studer

Action In Waiting. Karl Barth. Rif-

ton, N. Y.: Plough Publishing

House. 1969. Pp. 69. $2.50.

It is the impassioned conviction of
the Society of Brothers that the En-
glish-speaking world must know of
the labors and message of the Blum-
hardts, a father-son team whose
ministry centered in Mottlingen and
Bad Boll, Germany and spanned the
nineteenth century. This they hope
to achieve by means of a series of
publications of which Action In
Waiting is phase two. This small
book was published for release on
August 2 in commemoration of the
fiftieth anniversary of the death of
Christoph Blumhardt, the son of
Johann. It consists of an introduc-
tory essay by Arthur Wiser, the ar-
ticle by Karl Barth published first in
1916 in the Free Swiss Worker news-
paper, and a message by C. Blum-
hardt entitled “Joy in the Lord.”
(This message had been published
earlier by Plough in a 16 page
pamphlet.) Phase one of the plan
to make known the message articu-
lated by the Blumhardts was the
publicatoin of R. Lejeune’s Chris-
toph Blumhardt and His Message in
1963.

Herman Hausheer said in a half-
column article in the Encyclopedia
of Religion (published by Philoso-
phical Library in 1945) of the Blum-
hardts: “Since the days of the

prophets and apostles few individ-

uals spoke as luminously, freely, and
potently out of God’s Word.” At
that time he also said that until
twenty years ago only a small circle
of men had heard of the two Blum-
hardts. Prior to that time the infor-
mation available to the English-
speaking world was very little and
considerably prejudiced, for in-
stance, the brief article in the New
Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Re-
ligious Knowledge. Perhaps now
the most urgent thing to be done is
to make available a great deal more
of the writings of these men so that
we can gain our impressions first-
handedly and in some depth rather
than through excerpts and commen-
tary, helpful as these are.

The prevailing American ignor-
ance of these two men’s labors and
message is admitted by an editorial
that appeared in the July 30, 1969
issue of The Christian Century. Here
C. Blumhardt is described as “one
of those unsystematic middle-range
figures with innovative power who
fits no conventional slots” though it
was also noted that he had “consid-
erable influence on Karl Barth.”
The editorial is generally cryptic
and commendatory but cautious.

Action In Waiting is scarcely
more than an appetizer but it is
assuredly that! Both the sermon by
Blumhardt and the article by Barth
suggests many facets that this reader
for one would like to pursue a great
deal further. For example, the hints
of “universalism” that recur; the
clear-cut call to Christians to live in
community rather than merely in
congregations; the dogmatic asser-
tions by Blumhardt that the church
and the revivalist fellowships and
sects are not God’s people because
the renewal efforts occurring in
them peter out; the proposition
(shades of Rauschenbusch!) that
perhaps it is those who act to relieve
suffering and improve men’s earthly
lot, even though unbelievers, that
will prove to constitute the majority
of those who enter the Kingdom of
Heaven!

It is noteworthy indeed to learn
that it was the Blumhardt’s influ-
ence that brought Karl Barth to the
realization that not man, but God, is
the primary reality and first cer-
tainty. The implications of this for
our shattered world are as startling
for us as for Barth if we will weigh
them as thoroughly as Barth did.
(It should also be pointed out that
according to Barth’s son, Markus,
there is no connection whatever be-
tween the Barth that preceded the
elder Blumhardt in the Mottlingen
pastorate in 1838 and the late Karl
Barth who wrote this article.)

(Continued on Page 8)

8

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

BOOK REVIEWS

(Continued from Page 7)

The descriptions provided by these
two Plough Publishing House books
of the Kingdom power in evidence
at Bad Boll in the healing of the
sick and the driving out of demons
during the ministries of the Blum-
hardts and the testimony that simi-
lar things were experienced in the
Society’s Bruderhofs again and again
do call us to give attention to these
evidences of the Kingdom of God
among men.

We American Christians owe it to
ourselves and to our faith to hear
well and to ponder at length the
message emanating from the presses
of the Society of Brothers. These
are but two of the modest number of
books that have appeared in the
past twenty years that are of the
highest quality both in content and
format, substantial in purpose and
attractive in appearance. Don’t
short-change yourself intellectually
or spiritually by overlooking them.

— Gerald C. Studer

“My Beloved Brethren . . By Er-
nest John Swalm. Nappanee, Ind.;

Evangel Press. 1969. Pp. 156.

$3.00.

This book of personal memoirs
and recollections of a Bishop in the
Canadian Brethren in Christ Church
proves to be a delightful period of
fellowship with a man who for me
is a beloved brother. After having
traveled for nearly two months with
“E. J.” thru much of Europe and the
Holy Land in 1957 in a manner that
provided many hours of opportunity
almost daily to profit from his broad
experience and great heart, the an-
nouncement several months ago of
his forthcoming book prompted me
to place my order immediately.

His unquenchable sense of humor
and his inimitable manner of re-
counting personal experiences are
both here in all their richness and
warmth. He is as capable and good-
natured in telling stories on himself
as he is of telling them on his Men-
nonite brothers with whom he
worked for years in the interests of
our peace witness or with whom he
traveled to and from Mennonite
World Conferences. The names of
H. S. Bender, Edgar Metzler, J. C.
Wenger, J. B. Martin, and S. F. Coff-
man all appear as part of his story.
He understandably does not identify
by name the Mennonite bishop who,
seeing the large sign saying “Get
your francs here” over a booth as
they disembarked at La Havre,
France in 1952, said to the other
Mennonite Bishop traveling with
him, “Let’s get some,” only to re-

ceive the reply: “No, I had such a
big dinner on board I can’t eat
another bite!”

Brother Swalm comments con-
cerning both the Wesleyan Holiness
doctrine and that of divine healing
that these came into the Brethren in
Christ Church from outside sources
and were not among their original
tenets of faith. The use of “class”
in reference to the charter members
of a new congregation sounds quite
Wesleyan also. And his casual use
of “full gospel” in describing the
Brethren in Christ message is inter-
esting also in light of its current
use in reference to pentacostalism.

Perhaps Bishop Swalm unconsci-
ously uses some words and phrases
(such as “the Executive”, in refer-
ence to a Ministerium and “legality”
in reference to a Bishop performing
certain congregational duties) in the
manner that a certain vocabulary or
verbal shorthand often develops
within any in-group but again he
may have used it consciously since
he envisions his primary reading
audience as fellow-members of his
own denomination. At any rate
these are very minor obstacles to
the non-Brethren-in-Christ reader.
The lion’s share of the 19 chapters
and 149 pages of text is devoted to
brief history/reminiscences of more
than 35 churches and mission points
— all in Canada. In the process of
recounting these various histories
many significant lessons are pointed
out in passing as having been
learned — usually, as we say “the
hard way”.

The book is illustrated at the end
with a cluster of ten photos beside a
full page picture of the author in
the beginning followed by two ap-
pendices of Brethren in Christ mis-
sion personnel data plus a list of the
various offices which were held by
Bro. Swalm.

— Gerald C. Sluder

The Voluntary Church. Edited by

Milton B. Powell. New York, New

York, The Macmillan Company.

1967. Pp. 197. $5.95.

During the 125-year span from
1740-1865 there were hundreds of
travel accounts written by European
visitors to America in which the
new American church scene re-
ceived lengthy comment. The emerg-
ing phenomenon which is called the
voluntary church was an utterly
new and radical solution to the
problem of religious diversity that
had plagued Europe for so long.
These visitors looked upon this de-
velopment based upon religious free-
dom, voluntary support of religious
institutions, separation of church and
state and ultimately an affirmation

of religious pluralism with a diver-
sity of judgment and a richness of
insight that an American could
scarcely hope to have.

Some of these commentators from
whose writings the selections for
this book were made are well known
— such as Trollope, Tocqueville,
Crevecoeur, and Harriet Martineau.
Others such as Peter Kalm, a Swed-
ish botanist, Andrew Reed, Philip
Schaff, and George Combe will
probably be unfamiliar to many
readers. One will find contradictory
views in successive chapters. It will
be striking to many readers to no-
tice how differently various visitors
writing of the same country, people
and time can see such utterly di-
verse things. What is even more of
a surprise is to discover again and
again how relevant are the questions
raised to the scene today and again
how wrong some were in spite of
the confidence with which they
made their assertions.

The editor, Milton B. Powell, re-
ceived his Ph.D. from the University
of Iowa and is now assistant profes-
sor of American Thought and Lan-
guage at Michigan State University.
The premises that underlie the pub-
lication of these materials are that
we can learn and have learned much
that is important about ourselves
from studying the reactions of
thoughtful Europeans to their ex-
perience of American life and that
although the organization of religion
was one of the most striking features
of American society in the period
here surveyed, students of religion
in America have not by any means
fully utilized the wealth of pertinent
comment and criticism on this topic
that exists in these accounts. Both
our reflection upon their errors as
well as our discovery of their accu-
racy of observation should help us
understand, if not alter, the course
of Christianity in a democracy. This
book should receive the careful at-
tention of all students of church his-
tory. Harriet Martineau’s comments
upon the clergyman as a spokesman
on social issues is alone worth the
price of this book.

—Gerald C. Studer

Gerald Studer is the author of the
40 page booklet Frederick Goeb,
Master Printer, published in 1963 by
the Goeb Bible Sesquicentennial,
Somerset, Pa. In 1813 Goeb pub-
lished the first Bible west of the
Alleghenies. The book contains not
only the story of the man and his
work but also many outstanding
photographs and reproductions, such
as the title page of the 1813 Bible.
Jan Gleysteen did the art work on
the cov^r.

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

Vol. XXXI

JULY, 1970

No. 3

GERMANTOWN MENNONITE MEETING-HOUSE

The Germantown, Pennsylvania, Mennonite church was the first Mennonite congregation to be organized in America. Congrega-
tional life began as early as 1690 but its first baptism and communion service was held in 1708. In that year their first meeting-house,
a log structure, was erected. It was replaced by a stone structure in 1770, which is the oldest Mennonite meeting-house in America
still in use. The picture above was taken about 1870, a century after the structure had been built. Plans are being formulated for a
200th anniversary program in this church on Sunday, October 11, 1970. The above picture is in the John F. Funk Collection, Archives
of the Mennonite Church, Goshen, Indiana. M.G.

Three Old Bibles

Virgil Miller

In the last few years three signifi-
cant family Bibles have been dis-
covered in private possession of de-
scendants of Amish-Mennonite im-
migrants of the 18th century. Two
of them are Froschauer Bibles
printed in the 16th century and one
is a 1767 Strassburg reprint of a
Froschauer Bible. All three tell
much about family backgrounds of
Amish emigrants of this period.
The Johannes Holly Bible is the
oldest, with the date Zurich, 1531.
It was long thought by the owner
to be printed in 1740, as that is the
date pressed into the leather cover.
It once won a prize for being the
oldest Bible in a contest. The judges

awarded it thinking that the Bible
was printed in 1740, not knowing
that at that date the Bible was al-
ready two hundred years old! The
book was evidently rebound at that
date and this may have been the
date that Johannes Holly bought or
inherited it. Apparently it was for-
merly owned by another family by
the name of Schultz, who were not
Mennonites, since they speak of
Michael Schultz being baptized on
the day he was born. He lived at
a place called Jessheim, which has
not as yet been located. In 1732
Gorg Heinrich Schosser got the
Bible in Jessheim. Johannes Holly
is known to have migrated to Ameri-

ca in 1750, which is known from
other sources. According to the
family record in the Bible, he had
at that time seven children, and
three more were born after coming
to Pennsylvania. Holly’s home was
in Berks County, Pennsylvania.
The Bible was taken by descendants
from Berks County to Somerset
County, Pennsylvania, and from
there to Ohio where it is now owned
by Enos W. Yoder of R. D. Sugar-
creek, Ohio, after having been in
his family’s possession for eight
generations.

A somewhat similar story can be
told of the Hans Christner Bible
brought to America in 1770. Hans
Christner migrated directly to Som-
erset County, Pennsylvania in 1773
after a few years in eastern Penn-
( Continued on Next Page)

2

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

OLD BIBLES

(Continued from Page 1)

sylvania. He possessed a Bible
with the Froschauer imprint of
1548, printed in Zurich. Like the
Holly Bible, it belonged first to an-
other family, probably not related
to the Christners. Before 1698 it
was owned by Martin Zeller. Hans
Christner’s family came from Swit-
zerland but he was likely working
in northern Alsace when he mi-
grated to America. Like the Holly
Bible, it was brought to Ohio by
Hans Christner’s son Christian, who
brought it to Holmes County around
1820. In turn members of his fami-
ly took the Bible with them to
Lagrange County, Indiana. It was
almost lost to the family until a
member of the Amish Church
bought it at a public farm sale. See-
ing the Christner family record in
it, the purchaser showed it to Levi
D. Christner, a direct descendant,
who saw its value and was able to
buy it from his fellow church mem-
ber. He discovered that the Bible
had a four hundred year history
and has been in his family for two
hundred years. It also gives valu-
able information about the Christ-
ner family, including the birth dates
of all of the children of Hans Christ-
ner the immigrant. Various mar-
ginal comments are included which
show evidence of use by the owners
of the Bible through the years.

The Troyer Bible is not as old
and does not contain an original
family record. However, it is also
an immigrant Bible, brought to
America by Michael Troyer or
Treier. The Bible is a reprint of the
Froschauer 1536 edition but printed
by Simon Kurssneer of Strassburg.
Since it comes from Alsace, this
may give a clue to the place from
which Michael Troyer emigrated.
The Bible contains a record, not of
Michael Troyer the original immi-
grant, or of his son David who
moved to Holmes County, Ohio and
settled near Charm, but of David’s
son Andrew, who apparently in-
herited it from his father. The
Bible stayed in the Troyer family
for nearly a hundred years when it
was sold to Peter Oswald, perhaps
at public sale, which may have been
the date of David Troyer’s death.
It is odd that the Bible contains a
record of Andrew’s family, though
the Bible passed out of the hands
of the Troyers. The dates of birth
are all from before 1842, however.
The Bible remained in the posses-

sion of others until the 1930’s when
Daniel D. Troyer, another descen-
dant and owner of a mill in Baltic,
Ohio, again recovered it. He kept
it in his possession until his death,
when his son Ura inherited it. Ura
Troyer now has the Bible at his
home in North Lima, Ohio.

Thus the three Bibles are still
owned by the families who brought
them to America over two hundred
years ago. Among the historical
notes gleaned from the family data:

Johannes Holly was the father-
in-law of the heads of at least three
very extensive families among
Pennsylvania and Ohio Mennonites.

1. Magdalena, b. Jan. 26, 1739,
was the wife of Bishop Jacob Mast,
the immigrant of 1750, whose de-
scendants are compiled in the Mast
Family History by C. Z. Mast of
Elverson, Pennslyvania.

2. Barbara (on the record, Bewy),

b. Apr. 17, 1741, who' married

Christian Yoder, an immigrant of
1742 and lived in Somerset County,
Pennslyvania. They left a large
number of descendants.

3. There were two Frenis, one
born in 1742 and one in 1757, indi-
cating that the first died in infancy.
The second Freni lived to marry
Joseph Schantz or Johns, the Amish-
Mennonite who helped to found the
city of Johnstown, or at least to
lay out lots on his farm which even-
tually became Johnstown. He was
an immigrant of 1769. Their de-
scendants are also rather extensive.

Besides the above daughters, sev-
eral sons were listed on the family
record. There were two children
named Hannes (Johannes), b. 1743
and 1745, and it is likely that the
first died already in Europe. Noth-
ing more is known about the sec-
ond. Jacob and Lydia were born
in 1746 and 1747, also still in
Europe. In 1751 a son was bom and
died namelessly in infancy, the year
after their arrival in America.
David Holly was born on Dec. 12,
1754, and owned land at various
places in Somerset County (in 1775
and 1784 in Brothers Vally Town-
ship, and in 1794 in Conemaugh
Township). He was gone for a
time and then appeared again in
Holmes County, Ohio in 1823. Since
some unaccounted for Holly chil-
dren lived in Canada for a while
it is possible that David Holly lived
in Ontario between the years 1800
and 1820. David Yoder, whose fam-
ily is also recorded in the Bible
was the son of Christian Yoder and

Barbara Hooley of Somerset Coun-
ty. It was his son Joshua who
brought the Bible to Ohio.

The Hans Christner family as re-
corded in his Bible, is as follows:

He was born in the year 1732.
He was married to Freny Schantz,
b. 1751, the sister of Joseph Schantz.
They emigrated to America in 1770.
Their children were:

1. Christian, b. June 21, 1774,

married to Barbara . . . They moved
to Holmes County about 1820.

2. John Christner, jr., b. June 8,
1776, lived in Elklick Twp., Somer-
set County, married Mary Mast,
daughter of Jacob Mast.

3. Peter Christner, b. Sept. 30,
1779, m. Susanna Burkholder, b.
Feb. 10, 1781. Lived in Somerset
County, Pennsylvania.

4. David Christner, b. Aug. 30,
1781, lived in Jenner Twp. Somer-
set Co. (according to the 1860
Census).

5. Joseph Christner, b. Aug. 1783,
married Barbara Burkholder, b.
1789 (sister of Susanna ?), Somerset
County, Penna.

6. Bentz Christner, b. Sept. 13
1785.

7. Magdalena Christner, b. Jan.
21, 1790.

8. Barbara Christner (Babi), b.
Nov. 16, 1791 (single in 1850, Holmes
County Census).

9. Jonas Christner, b. Feb. 11
1794.

The Troyer Bible has no record of
the children of the original immi-
grant. Michael Troyer is listed as
a tax payer in Salisbury Twp.,
Lancaster Co., Penna. in 1770 and
as a land holder in Bedford (Somer-
set County) in 1779, along with John
Troyer and Michael Troyer, jr. In
1783 Christian Troyer is also on the
tax rolls. John Troyer’s name ap-
pears as early as 1775. Thus the
following can be reconstructed:

Michael Troyer the immigrant,
married Magdalena Mast (according
to the Mast Family History).

John Troyer, his oldest son, b.
1753.

Michael Troyer, jr., b. 1754.

Christian Troyer, b. 1756.

John and Christian Troyer, like
David Holly, left Somerset County
after 1790 and became pioneers in
Ontario. Michael Troyer, jr., raised
a large family and eventually mi-
grated to Holmes County, Ohio.
David Troyer, as a younger son of
Michael, sr., was married to Bar-

Tlie Mennonite Historical JB^ulletin is published Quarterly bv the HistorUr-ai 0 nu

and distributed to the members of the Mennonite Historical Association Edilor MAr 111 ^ ^ -°S Me ^ nonite General Conference
Associate Editors: Ernest R. Clemens, Irvin B. Horst John A Hosteler T.n n r Kelvin Qmgench ; Co-Editor: Gerald Studer;
Stoltzfus, John C. Wenger, Samuel S. Wenger Lorna Ber°-ey Wilmer D Swnne tV L ^, ndls ’ Herman Ropp, j 0 hn S. Oyer, Grant M.
uting membership ($5.00 per year), or sustaining membership * P< [ Dues 5 or regular membership ($2.00 per year), contrib-

should be addressed to the eUtor/'MeXj^ sent ^itor. Articles aud news items

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

3

bara Schrock and eventually in-
herited the Bible. It is probable
that David was living with his fath-
er at the time of Michael Troyer,
sr.’s death around 1808, and thus
received the Bible as part of the
inheritance. Michael Troyer had
a number of other children, but the
Bible does not mention them. He
is the ancestor of most of the Amish
and Mennonite Troyers in the
United States.

— Bluffton, Ohio

A Joint Resolution on the
Subject of Immigration

Be it resolved by the Legislature
of the State of Minnesota

That in view of information re-
ceived through a special message of
his Excellency Horace Austin Gov-
ernor of the State of Minnesota, to
the Senate; and of further informa-
tion received through the Honorable
State Board of Immigration of Min-
nesota, that a large number of intel-
ligent and wealthy German Menno-
nites, living in colonies of Russia,
intend to emigrate to America; the
Legislature hereby instructs the
officers of the State Board of Immi-
gration, to invite the Mennonites to
settle within the limits of the State
of Minnesota, and to assure them
that they will receive a hearty wel-
come by the people of Minnesota,
and that the Legislature will endea-
vor to secure to them the largest
religious and political privileges
allowed under the Constitution of
the United States and the Constitu-
tion of the State of Minnesota; and
to render them all reasonable aid
and protection during their tran-
sit from Russia to the State of
Minnesota.

The State Board of Immigration
is hereby instructed to transmit
copies of this resolution to the
officers and Agents of the Russian
Mennonites.

Approved February 19th 1873
State of Minnesota
Office of the Secretary of State
I hereby certify that the foregoing
has been compared with the original
on file in this office and is a true
copy thereof.

Witness my hand and the Great
Seal of the State this 19th day
of February A.D. 1873.

S. P. Jennison
Secretary of State

The Independent Ohsefvor, Scott-
dale, Pennsylvania, April 29, 1970,
carried an interview with Gerald
Studer concerning his Bible col-
lection with particular emphasis on
Russian Bibles.

Christian Schantz

(1817-1907)

Christian Schantz was born in
Alsace Lorraine, France, near Weis-
enberg in 1817, and died at his home
near Archbold, Fulton Co., O., May
14, 1907„ arriving at the uncommonly
great age of 90 years, 2 months and
9 days.

He was the second oldest child in
a family consisting of 5 boys, John,
Peter, Jacob, and Joseph, and 2
girls, Magdelena and Elizabeth. The
oldest, John, died when in his boy-
hood age, in the old country. The
parents emigrated to this country in
1833, and located near Smithville,
Wayne county, Ohio. When mar-
ried, the children permanently lo-
cated in different parts of Ohio, and
West. Peter settled in Mt. Pleasant,
Lee county, Iowa, Joseph and Eliz-
abeth near Trenton, O., Magdelena
in Sedalia, Mo., and Jacob remained
in the old homestead.

Only one, Joseph Schantz, the
youngest, now nearly 72 years of
age is living. It was a healthy fam-
ily. The father attained an age of
over 91 years, mother 75 years, Peter
66, Jacob 73, Magdelena 70, Eliza-
beth 79.

The deceased married Rebecca
Grieser in 1838, and lived in Wayne
county till 1842, when he moved to
Fulton county, when nearly all this
section was an unbroken dense for-
est region, swampy and unhealthy.
He had been a resident here for 65
years and lived to see a great many
changes, and endured some trying
times, of which he often spoke to his
friends. In 1857 his wife died, leav-
ing him in this sparsely settled,
timbered and unimproved region
with five small children, greatly in
need of many necessary things to
make life even comfortable. He be-
ing an unusually strong and healthy
man, seldom in all his long life to
have an ache or a pain, industrious,
compelled under such circumstances
to practice economy, he managed to
clear his farm, build it up and make
both ends meet; also assisted his
children in a way to start them to
secure homes of their own, besides
providing for his widow sufficient to
keep her all her life. His oldest
children also shared their father’s
lot when passing through those pe-
riods of hardships. In 1852 he again
married. This time to Mary Gin-
gery of Wayne county. This union
was blessed with 8 children, 2 sons
and 6 daughters, of which 3 are liv-
ing, Amos, Elizabeth and Samuel.

The children of his first marriage
living are Chris C. of Wayland, Iowa,
Mrs. C. Gearig and Mrs. J. Frey of
Pettisville, O.

He leaves an aged widow of near-
ly eighty years, 29 grandchildren and
38 great grandchildren living. There
are 3 grandchildren and 9 great
grandchildren dead.

The funeral services were held
Friday at the Amish church, of
which he was a member nearly all
his life. Rev. Fryenberger preached
in German an impressive sermon
from Hebrews IV and Rev. Henry
Rychener in English from Cor. XV
51-52. We shall not all sleep, but
we shall all be changed, in a mo-
ment, in the twinkling of an eye,
at last trump; for the trumpet shall
sound, and the dead shall be raised
incorruptible, and we shall be
changed.

A large concourse of people as-
sembled to pay their last earthly
tribute of respect. The remains were
laid to rest in the Eckley cemetery
three and a half miles northwest of
Pettisville.

Those from abroad were Mr. C. C.
Schantz and William Wyse of Way-
land, Iowa, Joseph Schantz, Peter
Imhoff, Nick Augspurger, Julina
Augspurger, Mrs. O. Gingery, Mr.
and Mrs. J. G. Augspurger of Tren-
ton, Ohio.

We wish to express our sincere
gratitude to the many friends who
so faithfully assisted us during the
illness and death and burial of our
dear husband and father.

— Mrs. Chris Schantz and Family

(This obituary evidently ap-
peared in a Fulton County, Ohio,
paper in 1907. The clipping was
in the possession of Mrs. Anna
Wyse, Wayland, Iowa, and was
mimeographed for distribution
among the descendants of Chris-
tian Schantz by Melvin and
Verna Gingerich, February,
1950.)

Elmer F. Suderman published
“Fiction and Mennonite Life” in the
Midcontinent American Studies
Journal , Spring 1969. In The Jour-
nal of Church and Society , Spring,
1969, he published “Mennonites,
Poets and the Viet Nam War.” This
journal is a publication of the
Mennonite Brethren colleges and
seminary.

The Schwenckfeldiana, Norris-
town, Pennsylvania, September 1947,
carried on pages 29 and 30 an ac-
count of a gift of $371 in 1873 for
the transportation of the Hutterites
to America and in 1930 a gift of
$1,000 towards the transportation of
Russian Mennonite refugees to
Paraguay.

4

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

The Pfastatt Mennonite
Church

10 rue de Sausheim
68 Modenheim
France

February 5, 1969

Christian Graber
Goshen, Indiana 46526

Dear Cousin Christian,

Sincere thanks for your kind let-
ter and the historical account. It
is really a beautiful picture that I
have never seen. The picture is
posed in front of the door that leads
from the hall into the courtyard.
Yes, we had God-fearing grandpar-
ents, especially Grandfather was a
splendid man. When I glance from
the picture and think back, I am
keenly aware that our dear father
was accompanied by God’s blessing
from his youth, also when he was
ordained as a preacher and then
served and led the congregation as
elder.

It is not pride or presumption
against God if I relate to you how
our father with his friend Joseph
Schnall of Gebweiler founded the
Pfastatt congregation; it was, of
course, only grace and God’s pleas-
ure that they could do it in obe-
dience. It will surely be of interest
to you and will be recorded into
history.

In 1900 my grandfather came to
Pfastatt with his family. Our father
married in 1906 and then took over
the leased farm. The nearest con-
gregation was in Pulversheim, where
Father [Joseph Widmer] and his
friend Jos. Schnall were also called
to the ministry (ca. 1911). Because
of various difficulties in the con-
gregation at that time they did not
have the freedom to assume their
ministry in Pulversheim. There-
fore they decided to establish a con-
gregation in Miilhausen-Pfastatt
where several Mennonite families
settled.

When my father took over the
Pfastatt farm, my grandparents
bought a house with a large orch-
ard, known as the “Schlossli.” In
this Schlossli, not far from the pres-
ent chapel (church), adjacent to
the Schowalter home, the Pfastatt
congregation was born.

In this Schlossli our grandfather
offered to tear down a wall to merge
two rooms into one. This was about
in 1912, when the first meetings
were held. Very soon the room
became too small, and another room
and the entry hall were added. But
already by the beginning of the war
(1914) the hall was much too small.
Building could not be considered
because of the war. Throughout
the war the congregation was; scat-
tered, and so there was plenty of

space. Also because of the war,
Preacher Schnall could not for a
time come to Pfastatt. So father
would have been alone most of the
time if Uncle Johannes Nussbaumer,
of the court estate of Pfastatt Castle
had not stood by him selflessly and
loyally.

When conditions again became
normal after the war plans were
drawn up for a larger chapel. It
was high time, for on certain Sun-
days the young people had to be
content with standing room. The
Lord was gracious, the chapel could
be built and He has blessed the
work to the present time. To be
sure, the congregation was not
spared from trials, and Father as
elder needed much grace and wis-
dom — which the Lord granted him —
to keep the church together to pro-
tect it from impure spiritual cur-
rents. In the Advent season of 1963
our dear father for the last time
cried out from the pulpit to the
congregation: Be ye reconciled to
God.

The Lord Jesus provides for his
church. Brethren of the younger
generation are caring for and serv-
ing the congregation. But I do not
think I am boasting when I main-
tain that our church is still en-
joying the blessing that the Lord
Jesus granted our dear father and
elder, and that the seed will germi-
nate and bear fruit to the honor,
praise and glory of our great God.

In 1967 we are again faced with
the problem of adding to the
chapel; it is too small, especially
since Pfastatt has become the meet-
ing place for conferences. In the
spring of 1967 the building was be-
gun, and by the end of the year it
was completed. Now we have suf-
ficient space, and the Lord’s call
to us now is this: Go out to the
highways and hedges and compel
the people. May the Lord grant
us grace to be zealous in His serv-
ice. As the final adornment of our
church, we are expecting in the
course of the year to install a large
organ, which is now being built in
Strasbourg. . . .

Martha and Josy Widmer

The most recent edition (1970)
of the Encyclopedia Britannica con-
tains a new article by Guy F. Hersh-
berger on “Conscientious Objector.”

Several years ago Kathryn Miller
Snyder (Mrs. Paul Snyder), Hess-
ton, Kansas, published a 48-page
booklet on A Brief History of the
George Swartzendruber Family.
Born in Germany, George Swart-
zendruber lived there and in Mary-
land before coming on to Iowa in
1851 where he lived until his death
in 1904.

Early Pennsylvania
Amish History

Elverson, Pa.

Mar. 16, 1938

Harold S. Bender
Goshen, Ind.

Dear Bro. Bender:

Yours of Mar. 10th, to hand and
noted and undoubtedly you realize
that you have given me a very hard
nut to crack because the Amish
historian failed to dip his pen. In
the past quarter of a century I have
endeavored to glean facts which
would have otherwise passed into
oblivion.

We certainly owe much to men
who wrote on church history and
family genealogy as Shem Zook,
John and Jonathan Hertzler and
David Beiler.

The Amish were only a very small
group in America during the Rev-
olutionary War period. In their
first organized congregation in
America, located in the present vi-
cinity of Hamburg, Pa., we find Bur-
key, Kurtz, Hochstetler, Fisher,
Kauffman, Keonig, Lantz, Mast, Mil-
ler, Yoder, Stutzman, Zug, Stoltzfus
and Detweiler families. Some of
these family names were repre-
sented with three to four married
couples. You can imagine that
there would be no large ministerial
list.

Probably you know that the Yod-
er family was the first [Amish] to
come to our shores. In fact we do
not know their exact date of ar-
rival but they took out a warrant
for land in Oley Valley near Fried-
ensburg in Berks Co., Pa. in 1714
and they were followed by the
Fishers, Kauffmans and Beiler s into
this region. Your president of
Goshen College emanated from the
Oley Valley stock. The old Yoder
homestead has been continuously
occupied by Yoder descendants since
1714. The present owner and oc-
cupant is David B. Yoder address
Maxatawny, Pa. They are very
sociable people and are glad to show
you old heirlooms which were
brought across the ocean from the
Netherlands.

The Amish Church in Switzer-
land had become alarmed about
the small flock in America who had
lived here without a shepherd.
However, Jacob Hertzler was sent
at the age of forty as a native from
Switzerland, who labored here al-
most forty years. Having come in
1749 his labors; were confined to the
Northkill congregation in the vicin-
ity of Hamburg, Pa. The “ten years
of bloodshed” entered in 1754 to
1764 when the savages returned
into Berks County to reclaim the
land. The Northkill church suf-
fered much from Indian depreda-

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

5

tions some were mercillessly driven
from their homes. Among such we
may mention the Lapps, Masts and
others. The Hochstetler family
also experienced a horrible mas-
sacre when the mother, a son and
a daughter were killed by the toma-
hawk. I could take you to the spot
where the massacre had occurred
on Sept. 19, 1757.

Jacob Hertzler lived in Bern (now
Upper Bern twp. Berks: Co., Pa.)
and his address was Hamburg when
he died. I could also take you to
his grave and homestead.

Now Bishop Hertzler remained
at his post while others fled. He
had a daughter that was married to
eldest son John P. Hochstetler who
lived seven miles from his home at
the time of the Hochstetler mas-
sacre. John P. had hidden his wife
and children under a pile of brush
who lived only a few hundred yards
across the field from his father
Jacob. He finally settled in Somer-
set County with his family and thus
we have the following congrega-
tions which were established before
1776 through the Indian depreda-
tions from 1754-1764.

Tulpehocken — Womelsdorf vicini-
ty Berks Co.

Maiden Creek — Leesport and Shil-
lington vicinities, Berks Co.

Conestoga — Morgantown vicinity
Berks Co.

Goshen — Malvern vicinity Chester
Co.

Goshen was the name of the meet-
ing house where they had wor-
shipped and here they had a con-
gregation before 1776. The four
congregations aforementioned and
the Northkill in Upper Bern Twp.
Berks Co. were the only organized
congregations prior to 1776.

Several years ago you were in
the Malvern vicinity when you had
stopped with the folks at the Maritz
Zug Homestead and made notes
from the fly leaves of the old Bible.
My great-great grandfather Chris-
tian Zug was the pastor of the
Goshen meeting at the time of the
Revolutionary War. The Contin-
ental Army had removed the rails
from his fences on the farm to con-
struct a fort. He was born Apr.
20, 1752, died Oct. 8, 1826, date of
ordination unknown. I am certain
that Bishop Hertzler ordained him
as Bishop Hertzler had oversight
of all these five early congregations.

My great- great -great grandfather
Bish. Jacob Mast was the resident
pastor of the Conestoga Congrega-
tion. My grandfather had stated
on his manuscripts that he was or-
dained in 1788 by Bishop Hertzler.
But this date does not harmonize
with the date of Hertzler’s death
on the Hertzler monument near
Hamburg.

Bish. Mast was born in 1738 in
Switzerland, arrived in America in
1750. In 1760 he made his escape
from the Indians and settled in that
same year in our valley, therefore
he was twenty-four years of age
when he came into this region and
I feel very positive that he per-
formed ministerial duties for quite
a number of years before Bishop
Hertzler died. His ninth child was
born in 1776.

The earliest ministers to the Maid-
en Creek Congregation whose
names are available as also ances-
tors on my paternal and maternal
sides are Christian Stoltzfus born
in 1748 and died in 1832. He was
my great-great-great grandfather
and I certainly believe that he
preached during the Revolutionary
War. Some of his close neighbors
especially Christian Schmucker who
is the ancestor of your Smuckers in
Indiana were imprisoned in the old
Reading jail for refusing military
service. You are undoubtedly ac-
quainted with that story and my
great- great grandfather Christian
Miller was also a pastor in the
Maiden Creek congregation. He
was born in 1760 and died in 1832.
According to his date of birth he
was no minister prior to 1776.

I have no knowledge of ministers
in the Tulpehocken congregation
near Womelsdorf where Conrad
Weiser the well known warrior and
Indian interpreter had lived. He
wrote once about several long
whiskered men identified with the
non-resistant faith of his locality
that to his surprise shouldered the
gun to drive the savages away.
However in this congregation we
find the Lantz, Yoder, Beiler fami-
lies and many others who moved
across the border into Lebanon
County and also to the banks of the
Cocalico in Lancaster County. I
think there were also some Burkis
and Stutzmans in this region who
had migrated here after being mo-
lested by the Indians in the Ham-
burg vicinity. Some of these fami-
lies kept on migrating into Mifflin,
Somerset and Cambria counties.
Among theme were also the Keonigs
or Kings. I regret that I cannot
refer you to any minister’s name
for this region prior to 1776. Tra-
dition teaches that a John Miller
was pastor for many years in Berks
County and later in life he settled
in Somerset County.

He was known as the blind
preacher as he was physically blind.

I have made this letter rather
lengthy, owing to the fact of my
meagre knowledge of the early
Amish pioneers.

Your family with many others
were induced to settle in America
through the Napoleonic Wars, which
was the means of introducing new

blood and thus I am a victim of
repeated intermarriages. I always
concluded that while I had com-
piled the most history in my single
days at the age of twenty-five years
that I would not marry any akin.
But somehow my companion who is
from Wayne County, O., is my
fourth cousin.

Recently I had the pleasure of
conveying Bish. Isaac Mast and his
wife from Casselton, N. Dak., a dis-
tance of 156 miles in ten hours
among the ancestral homes and
cemeteries of Berks County. May I
kindly ask you that after you have
made notes from this letter to sim-
ply address it to Bro. Mast at Cas-
selton, N. Dak.

With kind regards. I am
Yours in the faith

C. Z. Mast

A John F. Funk Letter

May 17 — 1910

Mr. S. W. Hummel
Red Cloud, Neb.

Dear Friend

... If you are living at Red Cloud,
Nebr. I must tell you a little of my
experiences at that place in 1873 —

I think if I remember the year right-
ly — I was then traveling with a par-
ty of Russian Mennonites — of whom
there is a settlement now in Jeffer-
son and Seward Counties — in the
vicinity of Henderson — also near
Fairbury and Beatrice. Came down
from Manitoba and Minnesota and
spent the night at Kearney Junction.
It was Saturday morning and we
went by rail (a party of 12 men) to
Juniata and breakfasted on Buffalo
steak — we then had two wagons and
two riding horses and made our way
to Red Cloud — My recollection is
that the distance is something over
40 miles. Red Cloud was a new
place with few inhabitants and only
one unfurnished Public house where
travellers could get entertainment or
a place to stay. We staid over Sun-
day. We had a Professor of some
Wisconsin school — a man of some
prominence and a preacher. We all
went out of town a little ways to a
school where an opportunity had
been made for the Prof, to preach.
But the Prof, could not be found;
our German Russian Mennonites
were good singers and the people
enjoyed their singing but it was all
in German — so after waiting till late
and no professor on hand to fill the
appointment — and the people not
being able to understand German it
was finally decided that your hum-
ble servant (the writer) should fill
(Continued on Page 6)

6

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

A JOHN F. FUNK LETTER

(Continued from Page 5)

the pulpit which he was also glad
to do. In the evening the Professor
appeared and we found out that he
had been out on the prairie some
miles from town with the surveyors
—looking up the lay of the Land.
He kindly consented to preach in the
evening. We left the place shortly
after midnight and I was told that
our party had eaten up the town of
Red Cloud — that is, our Hotel, after
feeding our party from Saturday
night to Sunday night (without any
knowledge of our coming), prepar-
ing a lunch for us to breakfast on,
on our [way we went] from there to
Hastings — had nothing more left,
even the chickens had been killed
and consumed. This is my story
about my Sunday at Red Cloud in
those pioneer days. I suppose a little
party of landseekers now would not
make so decided an impression on
the town now. Pardon me for im-
posing my experiences of olden days
on a stranger.

Yours, J. F. Funk

(Note: The above letter is in the
John F. Funk Collection in the
Archives of the Mennonite Church,
Goshen, Ind. M.G.)

A Letter Opposing
the Herald of Truth

(The following letter indicates
some of the concerns and issues
which were live in the “Old” Men-
nonite Church ninety years ago.
Funk started his church papers as
a private effort to be of help to the
Brotherhood, and for many years
he enjoyed the esteem and appre-
ciation of a large number of its
members and leaders. But a mi-
nority, especially those opposed to
the Sunday school movement, were
critical of Funk, as the letter indi-
cates. Bishop J ohn M. Brenneman
of Ohio, the midwest bishop who
enjoyed the confidence of the
church in a remarkable way, aided
and counseled John F. Funk in his
publication work, and also, inci-
dentally, ordained him to the min-
istry. Many of the anti-Sunday
school people were sincere and con-
cerned members of the church, but
in the perspective of history it ap-
pears that the Sunday school played
a major role in the spiritual prog-
ress of the Brotherhood. This let-
ter deserves publication as a pri-
mary source in the study of the
struggles of the latter nineteenth
century). J. C. Wenger.

(Continued Next Column)

Dale Enterprise, Va.

May 16th 1885

Jacob B. Mensch.

Dear Bro. in the Lord, I take this
opportunity to drop you a few lines.
We are all about as well as usual
and I hope these few lines may
find you and yours all well. The
Neighbors here are generally well
at present. I have Still not for-
gotten you yet. I still yet grate-
fully remember you and the kind-
ness and brotherly love you mani-
fested towards me when I was with
you in December 1880. Though we
may perhaps not see each other
again in this world of sorrow and
trouble I cherish a living hope that
we may see each other agin in the
everlasting habitations above pre-
pared for the Blessed of the Father
when time on earth shall be no long-
er to this end all our thoughts and
desires should be directed centering
in Jesus Christ the Lord, who is
the way, the truth, and the light.
I was requested by a Brother to
write to you concerning the Author-
ity given to John F. Funk to pub-
lish the Herald of Truth as an au-
thorized Church paper of the Men-
nonite Church in 1864. It is claimed
here in Virginia by a number of
those foremost in introducing new
innovations and new practices
which would not have been allowed
by our forefathers, That no one has
a right to publish a religious paper
in our (Mennonite) Church unless
appointed and authorized by the
Church to do so. Our Bishop here
in the middle district who as I sup-
pose you know had a son in the
Herald office at Elkhart, Indiana,
claims this. I was told by two
Brethren that the Minister and dea-
cons of the eastern Conference of
Pennsylvania or at least some of
them know how and upon what Au-
thority the “Herald of Truth” was
started. My Brother Peter Blosser
told me that you had told him some-
thing about this, and that if he had
understood you right John F. Funk
had put the question to Said Con-
ference as to the right or permis-
sion to publish a church paper, but
went on and published his paper
and issued it, before Said Confer-
ence passed any act in reference
to it. I had told this to the Brother
who has requested me to write to
you who is trying to find out what
ground these past men have for
their claim, and he then requested
me to write to you which I promised
I would do. And if you know in
what way and authority the Herald
of Truth was started please write
to me again and let us know the
Brother referred to would like to
have your written Statement for it.

I have understood by a brother
that J ohn F. Funk went three

years to the High School. If you
know about this please let us know.
I have talked with many Brethren
and Sisters in Pennsylvania and
other States who claimed that it
would have been best if no church
paper had even been started. After
hearing several of them explain
this point I had to admit that they
were right. Bro. Funk is inclined
to follow the fast element favoring
Sunday schools and other things
inclined to bring our Church in to
a closer friendship with the high
and most popular and war like
Christian denominations of the pres-
ent time. In places where our mem-
bership was small no other than
mixed Sunday schools or union
Sunday schools could be had and
I think there is no quicker way
under heaven to exterminate a Non-
resistant church than by its going
into a union Sunday school with
the high dressy fashionable warlike
denominations of the present day
by making them our equals in the
eyes of our children. I think the
Herald has been a cause to great
degeneration and demoralization in
this direction, to say nothing of its
favoring other innovations which
serve to pave the way to equality
with a Christianity more highly es-
teemed by the worldly minded.
The principal reason why the
“Watchful Pilgrim” was published
was to keep the church more closely
upon the old track and prevent as
much as possible the degeneration
from the nonresistant doctrine.
Bro. Funk sees that it is a Stumb-
ling block in his way, and occasion-
ally intimates that one church paper
is enough. By the aid of the Broth-
erhood I have now published it
nearly four years it was for more
than three years a great deal more
cost than income literally, and I
got considerably in debt by it. It
is now barely self paying. If there
had been no other religious papers
there would have probably been
no necessity for it. If it is for the
better in the eyes of the Lord, I
hope he will help me through with
it. So no more for the present.

To Jacob B. Mensch.

Please write soon.

I remain your well wishing

Brother in the faith,

Abraham Blosser

The Mission and Service Office
of the Conservative Mennonite
Board of Missions and Charities,
Irvin, Ohio 43029, in July 1969
published Nonresistance Under Test ,
by Nevin Bender and Emanuel
Swartzendruber. It is the story
of their experiences at Camp Meade
and at Fort Leavenworth during
World War I.

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

7

Mennonite Research
News and Notes

Melvin Gingerich

The American Artist , 2160 Pat-
terson Street, Cincinnati, Ohio
45214, April 1970, has a two-page
article on “Florian K. Lawton
Portrays the Amish in Watercolor.”
His “Auction Day,” a watercolor
print, is reproduced in color.

The National Geographic , April
1970, in its article by Mike W. Ed-
wards on “Shenandoah, I Long to
Hear You” devotes several pages
to Mennonite groups in the Valley.

Marlin LeRoy Heckman recently
completed his Ph.D. dissertation at
the Graduate Library School, Uni-
versity of Chicago, on “Abraham
Harley Cassel: Nineteenth Century
American Book Collector.” The
dissertation is 212 pages in length.
Dr. Heckman is now in the office of
librarian, Bethany Theological Sem-
inary, Oak Brook, Illinois 60521.

At the World Conference on Rec-
ords and Genealogical Seminar, held
in Salt Lake City, Utah, August 5-
8, 1969, Dr. Delbert Gratz of Bluff-
ton College, Bluffton, Ohio, read a
paper on “Records Relating the
Mennonite Story.” This 40-page
printed document can be obtained
from the author for $1.00.

Dr. James Landing published the
article “Personal Decision Expressed
in Agriculture” in the Bulletin of the
Illinois Geographical Society. It
covers pages 69-77 in the December
1969 issue. It has to do with agri-
culture decisions of Amish and a
Mennonite farmer near Nappanee,
Indiana.

LEONARD GROSS NEW
EXECUTIVE SECRETARY

On July 1, Leonard Gross assumed
the office of executive secretary of
the Mennonite Historical and Re-
search Committee, replacing Melvin
Gingerich, who has retired from the
office. Dr. Gingerich will continue
giving part time services to the Ar-
chives of the Mennonite Church.
Dr. Gross was born at Doylestown,
Pa. In 1953 he was graduated from
Goshen College and in 1959 received
the BD degree from the Goshen
Seminary. His Ph.D. dissertation,
completed at the University of Basel
was on the Hutterite Anabaptist Pe-
ter Walpot. He is married to Irene
Geiser, the daughter of a Swiss Men-
nonite minister. They have two
daughters. He has had two years of
Mennonite Central Committee ser-
vice in Europe and has taught sev-
eral years first on the high school
level and then later on the univer-
sity level.

Book Reviews

Conrad GrebeVs Programmatic Let-
ters , 1524. By J. C. Wenger. Scott -

dale, Pa.: Herald Press t 970,

Pp. 71. $5.00.

This publication is a new depar-
ture in Mennonite historiography
and is decidedly a bibliophile’s edi-
tion. The shape and binding are
different (paperbacked and bound
on the shorter of the 6y 2 by 10 V 2
inch sides) and the format is such as
to provide ample space for the
jottings of the scholarly reader. The
brief biographical introduction by
J. C. Wenger, Professor of Histori-
cal Theology at Goshen Biblical
Seminary, Elkhart, Indiana, is fol-
lowed by the original German text
and English translation on facing
pages. This in turn is followed by
a beautiful reproduction of the orig-
inal hand-written letters. The
German and English lines of text
are numbered to facilitate location
of the corresponding words and
phrases in either language. The
book was designed by Joe Alderfer
with a cover drawing of the Great
Minster by the gifted Mennonite
history artist, Jan Gley steen. The
choice of jacket cover, paper color
and weight, and the ink makes this
a beautiful collector’s item.

The book is significantly, if not
somewhat ironically, dedicated to
Dean Hans Rudolph von Grebel,
Pastor of the Great Minster today
and a lineal descendant of Conrad
Grebel.

The letters are remarkably re-
vealing — so much so in fact that
Dr. Wenger’s judgment is surely
warranted when he says that these
letters are “easily the most signifi-
cant of the extant products of Greb-
el’s pen.” There are sixty-eight
more of Grebel’ s letters extant,
most of them stemming from his
humanist years. These letters re-
flect a brash and dogmatic tone,
which characterize both Grebel’s
youthfulness and the spirit of the
16th century reformers generally.
Grebel has a “hang-up” on singing
but the more I read and re-read
these letters the more I was con-
vinced he was speaking particularly
of liturgical singing, albeit too
strongly.

Grebel’s concern for the Word
and rites of God and the rule of
Christ, his keen sense of forthcom-
ing persecution, his anxiety for
Muntzer’s continued soundness of
faith and practice, his inclination to-
ward a primitive and literal restora-
tionism, and his rather full dis-
cussions of the Lord’s Supper and
the salvation of children and bap-
tism, are especially noteworthy.
The vigor of his repudiation of both
the papists and the evangelical

preachers gives some solid support
for the view that the Anabaptists
in the beginning were neither Prot-
estant nor Catholic in spirit.

The price of this book may seem
high but the need for its contribu-
tion to Christian renewal today is
much higher!

—Gerald C. Studer

Fields of Peace. Text by Millen

Brand. Photographs by George

A. Tice. Garden City, N. Y.;

Doubleday & Company. 1970.

160 pp. $8.95.

Fields of Peace is just what the
subtitle claims it to be: A Penn-
sylvania German Album. George
A. Tice’s artistry with a camera is
coupled with Millen Brand’s poetic
and impressionistic text. The text
is at times a relaxed conversation
such as might be heard among those
intently examining an album of in-
triguing photographs of a kind of
“other world” right in the midst of
America. The text is rambling and
nostalgic with no intention to be
scientific or chronological.

Millen Brand is a novelist and
poet, currently a senior editor at
Crown Publishers. There is some-
what inevitably a concentration
upon the Amish and the Mennonites
but without confusing the two as
most “outsiders” tend to do. But
the book focuses upon the entire
range of “the Pennsylvania Ger-
mans” and includes the Schwenck-
felders, Moravians and Lutherans.

The book played delightfully on
this reader’s childhood memories
of growing up in a Mennonite fami-
ly on the farm: going to a little one-
room school with a small student
body consisting of Amish, Menno-
nite and “English” children; keep-
ing milk and butter cool by stand-
ing the containers on rocks; in the
watering trough in the milkhouse;
the windmill pumping water; and
playfully and furtively directing a
stream of milk into a cat’s mouth
while helping with the milking!

There are a few slight errors
scarcely worth mentioning. I am
not sure that “the church in the
heart” or “noninfant baptism” are
apt phrases to use in reference to
Mennonitism. At one point the
impression is left that Mennonitism
is a later development than that
represented by the Amish which
is not the case. Taking alternate
service is qualitatively different
from refusing the draft such as is
found today among draft-resisters.
There is no Christian high school
in the Bluffton area such as there
is in the Goshen and Harrisonburg
communities. The “requirement” at
Goshen College is a trimester
abroad, not an entire year.

(Continued on Page 8)

8

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

BOOK REVIEWS

(Continued from Page 7)

The author testifies for himself
of what has become for many Men-
nonites also a conviction: that it is
indeed an incongruity to see “ra-
diant-faced religious men spitting”
tobacco juice.

Fields of Peace is a sensitive and
sympathetic interpretation of one
of the cultural and religious con-
tributions of an European migra-
tion that has enriched America’s
life for over two hundred years.

— Gerald C. Studer

The Secret Archives of the Vatican.

By Luisa Ambrosini with Mary

Willis. Boston, Mass.: Little,

Brown and Company. 1969. Pp.

366. $10.00.

This book is a fascinating foray
into the past which literally bristles
with implications for the present.
It attempts to chronicle the forma-
tion and the subsequent good and
bad times of the Secret Archives
of the Vatican down to the present
day. This narrative is generously
laced with choice anecdotes and wry
humor.

Far more than most Protestants
realize, the Vatican Archives con-
stitute a treasury which belongs
not only to the Church but all man-
kind. One might say this book
tells the story of how the letters of
Saint Peter and Paul grew into
twenty-five miles of shelved
documents.

Mrs. Ambrosini, the author, re-
cords that “no information was re-
fused me when I had technical dif-
ficulties to overcome and no ques-
tion was ever put to me, after the
initial interview, as to the purpose
of my study.” She dispassionately
dissects many of the popular ideas
concerning the Secret Archives and
finds them largely mythological. It
is her opinion that nothing is kept
in the closed section because of its
subject matter. She further testi-
fies: “Nor did I, in the two years
that I worked in the Secret
Archives, see any attempt to censor
material.” The prevailing spirit is
that of Pope Leo XIII who said in
1881, “The Church needs nothing
but the truth.”

The Archives and the Vatican
Library (another treasure-trove of
all mankind!) are separate institu-
tions. It is the author’s opinion
that when the two institutions were
separated, the Library got more
than its share of the community
property. The Library’s intellectual
opulence is incredible and she re-
ports how she came to realize this
better when she asked to see
Michelangelo’s original letters and
was told apologetically that she
would have to wait because the

Pope had them out at the time and
they couldn’t press him to return
them! It is unbelievable that so
huge and prestigious an institu-
tion as the Archives has a staff of
only seven persons. The Archives
are the papal Curia’s working files,
but, as the man in charge says:
“Little by little, as the documents of
an archive age, they leave the realm
of administration for the realm of
history.”

The difficulties of research in so
ancient and huge a depository are
so great that sometimes a student
having enthusiastically gone through
the complicated procedure of getting
permission to work in the Archives,
disappears after a few days’ work
and never shows up again. But the
author says she found work there
pleasant since in dealing with an-
cient papers of men dead for cen-
turies but still alive in their words
and thoughts, history seems no long-
er history but rather, humanity.

Mennonites are sometimes prone
to refer disparagingly to their
meetinghouses as “barns” and you
can imagine my surprise when the
author said of the old St. Peter’s
of Rome that it was “literally a
barn of a place — one can still see
barns built on similar lines here in
the . . . Roman field.”

The author herself reminds one
frequently of her description of
Jerome as “prickly as a desert
plant” when she comments wryly
on the inadequacies of Carbon 14
dating by saying, “it can tell when
the sheep lived but not when the
parchment was written on!”

The great liberation resulting
from Vatican II concerning the use
of the vernaculars in worship in-
stead of the universal use of the
Latin seems a bit anticlimactic when
it is pointed out that already in the
mid-800’s Pope John VIII declared
to a missionary among the Slavs
that not only preaching and certain
prayers but all the offices, hours,
lessons, and the mass could be in
Slavic. Except for the evidence of
this surviving register, we would
not know that a pope had decided
to allow the use of a vernacular
liturgy long before Vatican II. We
learn, furthermore, that the hippies
and the communes of today con-
stitute just such a situation as that
to which Saint Francis gave direc-
tion and comradeship in the early
1200’s. There is a most unusual
historical note on the attitude and
actions of the Church regarding
slavery in the days of Christopher
Columbus.

Who would ever imagine that the
Archives would also speak to the
problems of pollution? Author
Ambrosini reports that a sign carved
in stone near her house in Rome
warns that “by order of the very

illustrious Monsignor who is presi-
dent of the street, it is prohibited
to throw garbage in this alley, or to
create a dump here, on pain of ten
scudi and corporal punishment as
judged.” The plaque was dated
1763, and she adds, “there was a
large pile of garbage under it when
I came past this morning.”

There are included a collection
of 32 pages of superb photographs
grouped together about midway in
the book. And there is further-
more the sad closing as she ques-
tions whether the present Secret
Archives will survive into that fu-
ture of extra-terrestrial space travel
and settlement. Protection against
bombing in any of the world great
capitals is really impossible— only
world opinion can insure the pres-
ervation of the Vatican Archives and
Library. She observes that “from
the American civilization, three
bodies of documents have a chance
to reach the post-atomic future —
the financial records of the east
coast, the genealogical records of
the Latter-Day Saints and the mili-
tary manuals from the NORAD
Command’s hollow mountain in
Colorado. And I doubt if the first
two will survive.” She recommends
that “if the Du Pont Corporation
wanted to make a contribution to
peace that would equal its contribu-
tion to war, it might try to develop
a nonorganic, nonflammable, chem-
ically inert writing material— some-
thing that could not possibly be
used for fuel or for toilet paper.”

Following a plea for the preserva-
tion of mankind’s records, there is
what is so far as I know a unique
handling of the matter of footnotes
as well as a good bibliography and
index. I wondered as I finished
this book, “Why does anyone read
fiction when there are books like
this?”

— Gerald C. Studer

The Budget, Sugar Creek, Ohio,
March 26, 1970, carried an article
by Wilmer D. Swope on the early
contacts of the Hutterites in Ameri-
ca with the Harmony Society, a
well-known communal society.

Nelle L. Schnitzler completed her
master’s thesis at the University
of Chicago in 1969 on “The Men-
nonite Historical Society and the
Reconstruction of Mennonite His-
tory Library and Publishing Pro-
gram at Goshen, Indiana.”

A mimeographed booklet “Descen-
dants of John M. Weber” was re-
cently compiled by Irene S. Weber.
It is concerned with the Weber fam-
ily who came to Berks County, Penn-
sylvania, in 1717 and then moved to
Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, in
1718. One branch of the family is
traced down to 1967.

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

Vol. XXXI

OCTOBER, 1970

No. 4

IOWA STUDENTS AT GOSHEN COLLEGE, 1807

The Goshen College catalogue for 1808-07 indicates that there were thirteen students from Iowa at Goshen College that year.
The two extra persons on the picture are Professor Solomon Gingerieli, Kalona, and Katie Heatvvole, daughter of L. J. Heatwole,
Dale Enterprise, Virginia. Miss Heatwole had been living at South English, Iowa, for a short period of time preceding her enrollment
t Goshen. Front row, left to right: Clark Wenger, South English; Emma Gerig, Way land ; Edith Wenger, South English; Professor
Solomon Gingerich, Kalona; Katie Heatwole, South English; Mary Fisher, Kalona; Abner Miller, Kalona. Back row, left to right:
Vlvin S heller, Kalona; Uriah Miller, Kalona; Anton Noyd, Lockridge; Urie Miller, Kalona; William H. Miller, Wellman; David
Yoder Parnell; Norman Kauffman, Parnell; John J. Fisher, Kalona. Picture courtesy Clark Wenger.

Two Old Letters from Iowa

Melvin Gingerich

In 1854 Amish settlers from Lee
County, Iowa, and other places be-
gan settling in Davis County, Iowa.
During the first decade of the set-
tlement no congregation had been
organized but the outbreak of the
Civil War in 1861 hastened action
for an organization to be formed.
Elder Jacob Swartzendruber of
Johnson County, Iowa, was called
to the community and visited them
in 1861. The letter below describes
what transpired. Later, in 1861,
Amish ministers Smucker and

Troyer from Indiana came and or-
ganized a congregation of at least
thirty-two members.

Stiles, la. April 4, ”92
S. D. Guengerich
Amish, la.

Dear Bro.: Yours of March 3rd is
at hand. Did not reach me at once
as I do not get my mail at Pulaski.
In reply to your letter hardly know
what to say. A long time before I
came to la brethern from a number

of eastern states came to build
homes. Many of them came from
Amish churches where they had
become weary with outward cere-
monies such as certain forms of
dress, etc., while the Savior’s great
injunction Matth. 28 — 19 & 20 was
almost entirely lost sight of. In
their new homes the great desire of
their hearts was to build a church
upon the plain teachings of the
Holy Scriptures. After consulta-
tion these people sent for Father
Swartzendruver of your place; he
came & the people were well
pleased with his teaching & desired
he should organize a church for
(Continued on Next Page)

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

IOWA

(Continued from Page 1)

them. This he utterly refused to
do unless they would put aside the
clothes they then had and shave
smoothly a part of the beard which
God in his wisdom gave them as a
protection. Also the hair must be
cut to a certain fashion with many
other similar rules. The people
felt that this indeed would be a
return of that Spoken of in Matth.
15-9 and the work stopped, the
people feeling this was not build-
ing on the everlasting rock & such
man made rules was only hay &
stubble.

Some time after the church was
organized & many have since been
brought to the Savior. But certain
forms of dress are unknown here.
Believing that it is the Christian’s
calling to walk humbly & upright
before God & man, holding fast to
Christ & his word, we believe it to
be becoming Christians to dress so
as not to attract the attention of the
world but prayerfully observe
Matth. 5-16. We are here known
as Mennonites & I did not know
that the dear brethren of Johnson
Co ever acknowledged us as Broth-
ers, have been told that our Pastor
would not even be welcome in your
Pulpit. I have made a report sim-
ilar to the one you asked last year
for the Mennonite church & so do
not know whether it would be
proper to make one under the name
Amish as I understand the Amish
are distinguished from other Men-
nonites by their peculiar form of
dress. I feel it is to be greatly
lamented that our people are so
divided, as in unity & only in unity
there is strength. Had the first
settlers of our faith in the United
States possessed a missionary
Spirit instead of Self I believe it
would today be far in advance of
any other church both in numbers
& usefulness in the U. States; have
often thought what a pity that the
different Mennonites do not try
to look over the wall & see brethern
on the other side traveling in the
same direction. Now my dear Bro
I may not be clear as to the report
you speak of & should like to hear
from you again. I feel that we
shall know each other better as the
mist clears away. Am personally
acquainted with a few of your peo-
ple, all of whom I esteem very
highly.

This was written in great haste
as I have a chance to send to P. O.

With kind feelings to all I remain
Yours.

C. B. Swartzendruver

S. D. Guengerich
Amish, Iowa

Dear Bro., your letter of 11th
mst is at hand. Am sorry I did not
state that the Census report of this
County must be wrong as there are
only two churches here, our church
& the church known as new Amish.
You perhaps know what they are.
They call themselves Believers in
Christ. Their membership is per-
haps from 40 to 50 but they hold all
other churches as unbelievers.
Your first letter was all plainly
stated and I understood it perfectly
but I was not clear whether you
would deem it proper to include us
m your report. For that reason I
made the Statement as it was told
me by those who formed the first
organization. I am very glad you
are engaged in the good work you
are. I believe it will have the
tendency to strengthen & unite all
the people of our & like faith. May
God bless you in your work. The
church here was organized in the
fall of 1861 with C. Sharp & C.
Crupp as preachers, with a member-
ship of 32, among others C. Bren-
neman, Jacob Schlatter, C. Ginger-
ich, P. Mourer, J. Naffsizer & these
people came mostly from Canada,
Ohio & Ind. The present member-
ship is 157 with Ph.Roulet as
Bishop. We have church services
every Sunday & also Sabbath
School. Our Sabbath School num-
bers 197, one Supt, Chorister, Sec &
Tr, 12 Teachers. The school is ever-
green. Please excuse this pencil
(or rather the writer) as I am here
at the Office & it just occurred to
me that your letter was not an-
swered. I am very thankful to See
that our people are being more &
more united, filled with the Spirit:
‘Thy people Shall be my people &
your God Shall be my God.” A
brotherly greeting to all especialy
to Bro J. C. Gingerich, Bro J. Mil-
ler, Bro Brenneman, & will write
you again.

C. B. Swartzendruver

A significant letter written to Jo-
siah Clemmer by John F. Funk on
March 12, 1878, is to be published in
the Bulletin in 1971. It concerns the
Wisler schism in Elkhart County
Indiana, 1871-74.

A Letter from
John S. Good

Stiles, Iowa Melvin Gingerich

April 25, 72 On September 15, 1864, three

Mennonite families left Allen Coun-
ty, Ohio, to settle in Page County
Iowa. They were the families of
John S. Good, Jacob Horning, and
Henry Hoffman. Before they left
Onio, Bishop J ohn M. Brenneman
ordained John S. Good to be the
minister of the new settlement,
other families joined the Page
County settlement in southwestern
Iowa up to at least 1881 but by the
end of December 1890 when their
minister moved away the congrega-
tion disintegrated rapidly. When
this writer visited the community
m 1938 a few Good, Horning, and
Eberly descendants were still liv-
ing in Page County.

The letter below, recently dis-
covered in an old Bible, was written
from Page County on Sunday even-
ing, March 25, perhaps in 1866, by
John S. Good. The letter was per-
haps written to his friend Bishop
John M. Brenneman. It has been
slightly edited. The original is in
the Archives of the Mennonite
Church.

Dear Brother,

By these lines I will give you a
way bill. The best route is to come
* om m , Ft - Wayne, Ind., to Quincy,
111. There you will cross the great
River then come on to St. Joseph,
Mo., then to Savannah then on Mon-
day Wednesday or Friday you can
come on the Stage to Marysville.
Then on Tuesday Thursday or
Saturday you can take the hack for
Clarinda but then you must bear
in mind the driver can tell you
when you cross the East Notaway
River Bridge. Then go on to the
first school house called Davis
school house then get off and go in
a lane right west. Then the first
house is Brother Aarons. Then you
begin to feel at home.

Another route is to go to Chicago
then to Burlington then to Eddy-
ville. Then take the Stage for
Clarinda but that route you have to
travel 170 miles on the Stage and
the other way only 60 miles I
think through Mo. is the cheapest
route.

Brother I further request of you
to inform me whether there was any
strict rule set forth at any confer-
ence about what rate percent in-
terest is allowed to be taken be-

Tlie Mennonite Historical Bulletin is published ira-i vterlv- v, „ tr- * . , —

and distributed to the members of the Mennonite HistMka^ As'^iadon “p , 1 . t , esearc :* 1 Committee of Mennonite General Conference
ST B. Horst, ««ald Sl X;

Associate Editors: Ernest R. Clemens. Irvin B. Horst .John A Hostetlo? T Melvin Gingerich; Co-Editor.- v

Stoltzfus, John C. Wenger, Samuel S. Wenger, Lorna Bergey Wilmer n 5' L ^ ndls ’ Herman Ropp, John S. Oyer

utmg membership ($o.00 per year), or sustaining membership ($25 00 ror Dues J or regular membership ($2.00 per year) contrib

Should be addressed to the editor, Melvin Gingefich, Goshen CoHeg' G^shen lndTaYa ^ t0 ^ edit ° r - Articles and news Rem s

Oyer, Grant M.

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

3

tween us brethren whether any-
more than 6 percent should be
taken or not. I want you to let me
know as soon as you well can. Here
is Brother Horning. He wants ten
percent. I think it should positively
not be allowed to take more than 6
percent. Therefore I would like to
know what to do about the matter.
I wish you would give us pretty
strict orders about it to avoid it if
possible. The world has a rule
here to pay 10 percent and he wants
to go by the same rule but I think
that rule is not for Christian Breth-
ren to take from each other.

We have pretty cold weather for
the time in the year. It snowed
enough today to cover the ground.
The coldest weather we had this
winter as far as I can ascertain was
23 degrees below zero.

J. S. Good

Old Order Amish
Population

Dr. James E. Landing

Population figures relative to the
Old Order Amish are not easily
obtained. Although some figures
are available through the Amish
almanac, 1 these are only infrequent-
ly revised, seldom complete, and re-
flect only baptized membership.
The Mennonite directory has dis-
continued listing Amish member-
ship figures, 2 and no other sources
are known.

There have been at least three
attempts to arrive at statistical
methodologies to ascertain Amish
population figures. Maurice Mook
concluded that the membership
should be multiplied by a factor of
3. 3 John Hostetler concluded that
the membership should be multi-
plied by a factor of 2.13. 4 Elmer
Smith concluded that Amish mem-
bership could be multiplied by a
factor of 2.1. 5 All are correct and
all are incorrect since their figures
were based on counts in different
Amish communities and there is
considerable difference between
Amish settlements in birth rate and
child attrition rates.

By a judicious blending of all of
the above computations, through
intuitive knowledge of Amish set-
tlements, and by interprolation and
“shrewd” guesswork, a calculation
of Old Order Amish population has
been made by this writer and is
presented below. These calcula-
tions are offered for two basic
reasons: to present a reasonably
accurate picture of contemporary
Old Order Amish population; and,
to challenge some demographer to
do an intensive study to ascertain
the degree of accuracy or inaccuracy

of the figures here presented. The
population (including unbaptized
children) figures are as follows.

Ohio 21,000

Pennsylvania 16,000

Indiana 13,000

Iowa 2,300

Illinois 2,200

Missouri 1,500

Ontario 1,300

Michigan 900

Delaware 800

Maryland 800

New York 800

Kansas 700

Wisconsin 700

Virginia . 400

Oklahoma 300

Tennessee 250

Florida 160

Arkansas 100

Kentucky 70

Paraguay 60

British Honduras 50

Total in United States ..62,100

Total in Canada 1,300

Total in Latin America. . 110

Total Old Order Amish. .63,510

Based on an analysis of Amish
membership figures and what in-
formation could be found regard-
ing Amish birth rates since 1947,
two additional generalizations can
be made.

1) . Approximately 33 percent of
children born in Old Order Amish
families either do not join the
church or, at some time, sever their
relationship with the Amish
community.

2) . Amish membership (not
population) is growing at a rate
slightly in excess of 2 percent per
year, which is considerably higher
than the population increase in the
United States, thus making the
Old Order Amish one of the fastest
growing Protestant groups in the
nation.

References

1 B. J. Raber (ea.), Der Neue
Amerikanische Calender, Baltic,
Ohio, published annually.

2 E. D. Zook (ed.), Mennonite
Yearbook and Directory, Menno-
nite Publishing House, Scottdale,
Pennsylvania, published annually.

3 M. A. Mook, “The Number of
Amish in Pennsylvania,” Menno-
nite Historical Bulletin, vol. 16, no.
1, January, 1955, pp. 32-33.

4 J. A. Hostetler, Amish Society,
Johns Hopkins Press, Baltimore,
1963, p. 80.

5 E. L. Smith, Studies in Amish
Demography, Research Council,
Eastern Mennonite College, Har-
risonburg, Virginia, 1960, p. 45.

University of Illinois at
Chicago Circle

The Buggy Cultures

James E. Landing

With over sixty of their settle-
ments scattered throughout the
United States and Ontario, Canada,
and more recently in several loca-
tions in Latin America, the Old
Order Amish have captured much
of the research attention of those
social scientists interested in study-
ing the adherence to buggy trans-
portation and the avoidance of
automobile ownership among the
baptized congregational members.
Such research attention is indeed
desirable, but it has resulted in a
lack of attention to two other Ger-
man background groups which still
maintain the avoidance of the auto-
mobile as a membership require-
ment: the Old Order Wisler Men-
nonites and the several groups de-
scending from the original German
Baptist Brethren.

The Old Order Wisler Mennonites,
with fellowship congregations in
Indiana, Virginia, and Ontario, rep-
resent the extension of much of
nineteenth century Mennonitism in-
to the present era. Although limited
in number, they are still a most
viable group and readily accessible
for study and comparison. Although
the Wisler Mennonites;, like the
Amish, have both automobile own-
ing and non-owning congregations,
the Old Order still resists the auto-
mobile and this single cultural dif-
ference separates them from mutual
fellowship.

It has not been generally recog-
nized that the buggy tradition still
exists among the German Baptist
Brethren. Following the 1881 split
in the German Baptist group into
the Old German Baptists and the
Conservative German Baptists (now
the Church of the Brethren, Elgin,
Illinois), both groups; continued to
split and become increasingly frag-
mented. No less than four addition-
al groups have emerged through
schism from the Old German Bap-
tist historical line: the Old Breth-
ren German Baptists (1913), the
Old Order German Baptists (1921),
the Old Brethren (1929), and the
Solomon Lavy Brethren (1953).
Of these groups three have main-
tained the buggy tradition: the
Old Brethren German Baptists, the
Old Order German Baptists, and
the Solomon Lavy Baptists.

Unlike the Old Order Amish and
the Old Order Wisler Mennonites,
the buggy driving German Baptist
groups are not very viable entities.
They are not gaining adherents
either through maintenence of the
children or conversion; they are be-
coming increasingly aged, and will
soon disappear from the landscape

(Continued on Page 4)

4

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

BUGGY CULTURE

(Continued from Page 3)

of North America. The Solomon
Lavy group, which originated in
Carroll County, Indiana, once had
followers in that area as well as in
Elkhart County, Indiana, and Darke
County, Ohio. There are only sev-
eral surviving members, all well
advanced in age, and no longer
any form of congregational identi-
ty. The Old Brethren German Bap-
tists, numbering about 35 members,
still survive in Elkhart and Carroll
counties in Indiana and Darke
County, Ohio. The Old Order Ger-
man Baptists survive only in Carroll
and Miami counties, Indiana, but the
identity is maintained strongly only
in Carroll County. The latter two
groups still hold their own respec-
tive annual conferences but have
no publications other than those
distributed within the congregations.

Although the German Baptists
still have buggy adhering groups,
it would be inaccurate to conclude
that the automobile has been the
sole factor in schism causation.
There were additional problems in-
volving congregational autonomy,
rite forms, and not a little of per-
sonality difficulties. If social scien-
tists are to make some evaluation
of the buggy driving German Bap-
tist groups they will have to scurry
soon to the scene since they cer-
tainly can not exist another
generation.

It is interesting that, although
Amish, Mennonite, and German
Baptist groups reside in North
America in proximity to each
other in a number of areas, in only
a single geographical location is the
buggy tradition still maintained by
all three groups: western Elkhart
County, Indiana, in the vicinity just
east and south of the city of Wak-
arusa. Here the residences of the
Old Order Amish, the Old Order
Wisler Mennonites, and the Old
Brethren German Baptists overlap
and only here can the three buggy
cultures be studied in terms of their
common ecological interaction. And
this will probably be true for only
a few more years, since the Old
Brethren German Baptists, by
choice, have doomed themselves to
extinction.

— Department of Geography

University of Illinois at
Chicago Circle

Chicago, Illinois

A second “sleeping preacher”
among the Amish Mennonites was
John D. Kauffman (1847-1913). He
died at Shelbyville, Illinois, where
lived Pius Hostetler, who in 1916
published the Life , Preaching and
Labors of John D. Kauffman.

Amish Population
Changes: 1947- 1964

Dr. James E. Landing

A comprehensive analysis of
Amish membership and population
changes for the period 1947-1964
was undertaken by the writer and
several of the results are presented
in this brief overview. 1

1) . During the study period new
Amish settlements were founded in
five states (New York, Arkansas,
Kentucky, Tennessee, and Florida)
which had no Amish settlements in
1946.

2) . During the study period
Amish settlements became extinct
in three states (Mississippi, Oregon,
and North Dakota), either through
migration or loss of Amish identity.

3) . During the study period
Amish population declined in three
states. The decline was 35 percent
in Kansas, 24 percent in Oklahoma,
and 20 percent in Michigan. There
was also a 13 percent decline in
Ontario, Canada.

4) . During the study period
Amish population increased in the
three states that include between
80 and 85 percent of the total Amish
population, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and
Indiana. The increase in Pennsyl-
vania was nearly 60 percent, over
40 percent in Ohio, and just under
30 percent in Indiana.

5) . Other states in which Amish
population increased were: Iowa,
Illinois, Missouri, Delaware, Marv-
land, Wisconsin, and Virginia.

6) . Old Order Amish member-
ship is increasing almost twice as
rapidly as membership in either the
Beachy Amish churches or the Con-
servative Mennonite churches.

7) . Amish membership seems to
be growing annually at the rate of
about two percent.

8) . Although migration, loss of
potential members due to a lack of
holding power over the unbaptized
children, and the loss of baptized
members who leave the church con-
tinue to be important mechanisms
accounting for the differential rates
of growth in the various states,
equally important are the continu-
ing associations with the Beachy
Amish churches, the Conservative
Mennonite churches, and the estab-
lishment of unaffiliated congrega-
tions. These latter mechanisms gen-
erally involve clusters of Amish
families disassociating themselves
from the Old Order in a short period
of time.

University of Illinois at
Chicago Circle

1 Further information is available from
the writer upon request.

An Old Church Letter
from Germany

(Issued in behalf of Christian
Schwartzentruber)

First of all a friendly greeting to
all those who love Truth, especially
to the ministers of the Mennonite
Church in America.

At the time Christian Schwartzen-
truber resolved to migrate to
America, he requested from us, the
undersigned ministers, a written
attestation; which is herewith pre-
sented to the same, in conformity
to his wishes, and out of true love:
that the above-mentioned Christian
Schwartzentruber at all times con-
ducted himself diligently and faith-
fully in obedience to his Lord in a
fitting and proper manner; that
consequently he may be taken in
and accepted as a brother in the
Lord and in the church.

Furthermore we trust that this
man and all of his fellow-travelers
may arrive happily, and that they
may align their remaining years
with the Word of God up to a
blessed close so that we may see
one another in eternity.

Furthermore we commend our-
selves and you to the protection of
God, the Most High. May he pre-
serve us and you from every attack
of sin up to a blessed end.

On the 18th of March 1819
Your affectionate

Samuel Brenneman
Elder Minister of the Church
of God in Hesse
Jacob Brenneman

INDEX FOR THE BULLETIN

The next index for the Mennonite
Historical Bulletin will appear in
one of the issues for 1971. It is
under preparation at the present
time. The last index, for the years
1950-1959, appeared in the October
1959 issue of the Bulletin. The first
index, for 1940-1949, appeared in
the October 1949 issue. Copies of
these indexes may be ordered from
the Bulletin for fifty cents each.

In 1950 the Fairfield Amish Men-
nonite Church at Tampico, Illinois,
reprinted Sermons Delivered by
Noah Troyer. This is the second
book of sermons by Troyer, con-
taining six sermons not published
in the first book. Troyer was a
member of the Amish Mennonite
Church of Johnson County, Iowa,
and delivered the sermons while in
an unconscious state. His first book
of sermons appeared in both Ger-
man and English in 1879 and the
second book, in both languages, an-
peared a year later.

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

5

Couples Married by Abner Yoder

Melvin Gingerich

Abner Yoder was born in Somer-
set County, Pennsylvania, in 1814.
In 1842 he was ordained to the min-
istry in the Amish Church and six
years later ordained a bishop. In
1866 he moved with his family to
Johnson County, Iowa, where he
was active in the Amish Mennonite
Church until his death in 1883. His
son Gideon A. Yoder (1855-1934)
was a bishop in the Upper Deer
Creek Conservative Mennonite
Church, Wellman, Iowa, while his

John A. Hostetler has a sabbatical
leave from Temple University to
study in Austria, working on a book
on the Hutterites. He will look up
places, manuscripts and artifacts
(pottery). He will reside in Vienna
in 1970-71.

grandson Abner G. Yoder (1879-
1942) was a bishop of the West
Union Mennonite Church, Parnell,
Iowa. Abner’s son Gideon is a
Mennonite minister living in Hess-
ton, Kansas.

Below is a list of the marriages
performed by Abner Yoder. The
list is from the records of the late
Elmer G. Swartzendruber, who was
bishop of the Upper Deer Creek
Church at Wellman, Iowa.

Donald F. Durnbaugh has com-
piled a twelve-page pamphlet on
“Guide to Research in Brethren
History.” It was published by the
Church of the Brethren Historical
Committee, the Brethren Press,
Elgin, Illinois 60120, in 1968.

Mennonite Research
News and Notes

Melvin Gingerich

Ruth Histand Mosemann, 1712
Woodward Place, Goshen, Indiana
46526, has published Family Direc-
tory of Samuel Swartz Histand and
Susa7i Overholt Landis. Printed in
1969, this hard-cover illustrated
book has 203 pp. and sells for $5.00.
A three-page history of the Histand
family precedes the genealogical
tables.

D. W. Miller, 3722 Chapel Drive,
Sarasota, Florida 33580, in 1969
published S. D. Miller Family His-
tory , a 66 page papercover book,
which sells for $2.35. The book is
illustrated. Samuel D. Miller (1858-
1946) lived in Holmes County, Ohio.
The descendants are evidently lo-
cated largely in that county; the
addresses of S. D. Miller’s descend-
ants are not given. In a letter the
author makes the statement that
“many of S. D. Miller’s grandchil-
dren, great-grandchildren, and
great-great-grandchildren have at-
tended Goshen College.”

An 80-page lithographed booklet
entitled Daniel Bender and His De-
scendants was printed in 1970 at
Kalona, Iowa. Copies may be or-
dered for $2.25 from Edwin Bender,
Box 373, Kalona, Iowa 52247. The
dates of Daniel Bender are 1835-
1918 and of his wife Veronica Roth
1839-1912. They lived in Ontario,
Canada, where they were married.
Around 1860 they moved to Elkhart
County, Indiana.

In 1953 Jacob Christner published
Kauffman’s Sermons. This small
booklet of 45 pages was printed by
Martin Printers, Saint Joe, Arkan-
sas. The author heard Kauffman
preach and recorded what he re-
membered of his sermons.

John A. Hostetler and Gertrude
Enders Huntington published “Com-
munal Socialization Patterns in
Hutterite Society” in Ethnology ,
October 1968.

Bishop John Blank and Family
is the title of a book published in
1963 by Sadie R. Blank Mast, Route
1, Gap, Pa. 17527. The book traces
the ancestry of Dr. Jacob Blank,
a practicing physician, who arrived
in Philadelphia from Switzerland
Oct. 3, 1710. Many of the Blank
descendants are Amish or Menno-
nite. This hard-cover book has 152
pages.

Dr. Franklin Littell, Director of
Graduate Religious Studies, Temple
University, reports that the school
has 243 Ph.D. candidates in Relig-
ious Studies, a considerable number
of whom are pursuing Anabap-
tist/Free Church affairs.

Sam Schrack Katy Johns

Herman Yoder Betsy Esch

Sam Yoder Nancy Johns

Sam Schrack Rebecca Yoder

Adam Mast Sali Yoder

In Pennsylvania and Ohio

David C. Yoder Sali D. Yoder

Herri Hochs teller .... Katy Wenger

Mose Stutzman Katy Yoder

Reuben Yoder Harriet Riehl

David Lehman Katy Coblenz

Elias Kinsinger . . . Susanne Yoder
Dec. 22 1865

Dec

16

Feb

14

Jan

2

Jan

5

Feb

25

Dec

13

Jan

3

Jan

10

Feb

28

Oct

26

Dec

16

Dec

19

Feb

3

Feb

20

Nov

3

Nov

24

Dec

27

Feb

23

Mar

2

Mar

6

Jul

20

Dec

21

Jan

18

Feb

15

Feb

18

Jan

16

Nov

2

Jan

1

Feb

1

In Iowa

1866 Jeremiah Kauffman Judith Yoder

1867 Daniel P. Brenneman Miriam Wertz

1868 Jacob D. Guengerich . . . Lydia Guengerich at Abe Kauffmans

1868 Joseph Birkey. . . .Catherine Bender at Peter Swartzendrubers
1868 Levi D. Yoder Catherine Lehman at Isaac Eschs

1868 Samuel H Hochstetler Rosa Schrack

at Frederick Swartzendrubers

1969 Daniel J Bender Louisa Sindlinger

at Joseph Swartzendrubers

1869 Emanuel Brenneman Barbara Schrack

at Emanuel Hershbergers

1869 John J Kempf Mary Stutzman at Chris Shetlers

1869 Noah Petersheim . . . Lydia Stutzman at Jonathan Gingerichs
1869 Sam Yoder Catherine Helmuth at Abner Yoders

1869 John Shetler Catherine Kinsinger at Daniel Shetlers

1870 Christian Gingerich Rebecca Yoder

at Christian Gingerichs

1870 Peter Kinsinger Elizabeth Yoder at John J. Millers

1870 Jacob Guengerich . . Elizabeth Guengerich at Christ Gingerich
1870 Mose Yoder Lydia Hershberger at Joseph Shetlers

1870 Mose Stutzman Barbara Swartzendruber

at Frederick Swartzendrubers

1871 Daniel Wertz Barbara Miller at Jacob B Millers

1871 Ananias Yoder Susanna Stutzman at Mose Stutzmans

1871 Joseph C Gingerich Catherine Swartzendruber

at Emanuel P Hershbergers

1871 Frederick Swartzendruber Betsy Yoder

at brides parents home

1871 Jonas Miller Lucyanne Miller at Joe P Millers

1872 Joseph Yoder Eliza Miller at Mose P Millers

1872 Daniel D Miller Betsy Yoder at brides parents home

1872 John Yoder Lena Fisher

at Frederick Swartzendrubers

1873 David S Yoder Eliza Stutzman at brides parents home

1873 Christian Bender Mary Gartner at Daniel B. Millers

1874 Christian Knepp Rebecca Shetler at Jost Stutzmans

1874 Jost Stutzman Anna Petersheim at John Roths

6

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

Mennonite Historical
Bulletin Report for 1969

Introduction

This report covers the four issues
of Volume XXX (1969) of the Men-
nonite Historical Bulletin. As dur-
ing the previous year, Melvin Gin-
gerich was office editor and Gerald
Studer, serving as co-editor, was
responsible for most of the book
reviews.

Analysis of Contents

A. Regions Covered Number

Ohio 14

Texas 6

Indiana 2

Ontario 2

Alberta 1

Iowa 1

Kansas 1

Mexico 1

Nebraska 1

Pennsylvania 1

B. Types of Articles Number

Book Reviews 11

Letters 6

Pictures 5

Settlements 4

Biographical 3

Congregational History. 3

Obituary 3

Research News and

Notes 3

Anniversary 2

Archives 2

World War 1 2

Genealogies 1

General 1

Horsch Essay Contest . . 1

Hutterite 1

Old Order Amish 1

C. Writers Number

Gerald C. Studer 11

James O. Lehman 9

Melvin Gingerich 6

P. B. Snyder 3

James E. Landing 2

Simon Gingerich 1

John D. Grove 1

Beulah Hostetler 1

James Juhnke 1

Henry E. Landis 1

Merl Lehman 1

Wilmer Reinford 1

George Swartzendruber 1

Wilmer D. Swope 1

Peter S. Tschetter 1

J. C. Wenger 1

Circulation

The number of names on the mail-
ing list as of June 30, 1970, is 260,
the same number listed on June 30,
1969. The number of non-Menno-
nite libraries now receiving the Bul-
letin is 67, compared to 64 a year
ago. The circulation is given below.

States

Pennsylvania .

Ohio

Indiana

Virginia

Illinois

Iowa

California

New York

Kansas

Minnesota

Massachusetts . .

Maryland

Michigan

North Dakota . . .

New Jersey

Colorado

Washington, D. C,

Kentucky

Missouri . ......

North Carolina . .

Oregon

Florida

Connecticut .

Nebraska

Tennessee

Texas

Alabama

Georgia

Idaho

Montana

Oklahoma

South Carolina . .

Utah

Washington .
Wisconsin

Number
.. 74
. . 26
. . 25
. . 13
. . 11
. . 10
. . 8
. . 7

5

5

4

4

4

4

3

3

3

3

3

3

2

2

2

2

2

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

1

Countries Number

Canada 9

Netherlands 3

Germany 1

Ghana 1

Jamaica 1

Paraguay 1

Uruguay 1

Switzerland . 1

Mennonite Historical Association
Members

The following persons who are
members of the Mennonite Histori-
cal Association contributed either
$5.00 for a Contributing Membership
or $25.00 or more for a Sustaining
Membership between July 1, 1969
and June 30, 1970.

Sustaining Members in 1969-70
Olen Britsch
Ernst Clemens
Ernst Correll
Melvin Gingerich
Owen Gingerich
Orland R. Grieser
A. P. Hallman
Leo F. Hostetler
Warren A. Lapp
Lester L. Litwiller
Orie O. Miller
Nelson D. Moyer
Wilmer L. Reinford
Floyd Rheinheimer
A. W. Roth
Erie Sauder

Joseph N. Weaver
Glen Widmer
Howard C. Yoder

Contributing Members in 1969-70
Daniel Beachy
Harry Brunk, Sr.

Ira J. Buckwalter

I. E. Burkhart
John H. Burkholder
A. C. Gingerich

A. L. Click

J. Paul Graybill
John G. Habecker
Harold Hartzler
M. P. Hochstetler
J. F. Kanagy

F. E. Kauffman

C. J. Kurtz

Ira Landis

James O. Lehman

Otto J. Miller

Curtis Mininger

Paul Neuenschwander

John S. Oyer

Ivan Sensenig

Mrs. Jacob N. Shenk

Edwin L. Stauffer

A. Lloyd Swartzendruber

Maude Swartzendruber

James Tinsley

S. S. Wenger

Lloyd R. Zeager

Finances

The amount of money spent for
printing and mailing four issues of
the Bulletin for 1969 was $726.95,
compared to $639.26 for 1968. The
amount received for subscriptions,
for sale of single issues, and gifts
during the July 1, 1969-June 30, 1970
period was $1156.00, part of which
was allocated to other funds. The
Bulletin is now being mailed flat, in
large envelopes. This has slightly
increased the cost of mailing.

Melvin Gingerich
June 30, 1970

Book Reviews

Strangers and Exiles. A History of
Religious Refugees. By Frederick
A. Norwood. Nashville: Abing-
don Press. 1969. Vol. I, 496 pp.;
Vol. II, 527 pp. $25.00 for two
volumes.

In these two volumes on religious
refugees appears for the first time
a comprehensive treatment of Jew-
ish and Christian groups in the role
of exiles. Volume I begins with
the refugees of the Old Testament
times and takes the story through
1865. Volume II brings the ac-
count up to the present time.

The author is professor of history
of Christianity at Garrett Theologi-
cal Seminary. He received his B.D.
and Ph.D. degrees at Yale, where
he studied with Roland Bainton,
who wrote the Foreword for Nor-

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

t

wood’s study. Dr. Norwood’s doc-
toral dissertation on “The Reforma-
tion Refugees as an Economic
Force” led him into a much wider
chronological and geographical study
than was covered by his disserta-
tion. His thirty-three page bibliog-
raphy from which he has drawn
his materials is impressive not only
because of its length but more par-
ticularly because of its breadth of
coverage. This reviewer can think
of only a few volumes that might
have been added to the list.

Although primarily an historical
treatment, the books present theo-
logical issues, economic factors, so-
cial implications, and psychological
forces which combined to help di-
rect the way history moved. The
author skillfully weaves in these
forces which combined to make it
impossible to offer simplistic expla-
nations for the presence of “stran-
gers and exiles” who could not easily
find a “continuing city.” Although
the author avoids judgmental at-
titudes, he does find much of man’s
inhumanity to man but he also
points out the presence of much
nobility and compassion and thus
states, “And that for me makes the
story worth writing.” His four-
page Preface is a masterpiece, de-
lineating clearly the scope, limita-
tions and objectives of his study.

In Volume I, the author presents
a brief introduction to the wander-
ings in the Old Testament before
turning to New Testament times.
Especially helpful here is the dis-
cussion of the various ways reli-
gious leaders have interpreted “The
Parable of the Great Banquet,” the
“Parable of the Tares,” and the New
Testament advice on what to do in
time of persecution. Next come
the discussions of ancient Chris-
tian refugees, the Jewish Diasporo
to 1492, the medieval church and
the inquisition, and the medieval
Christian refugees. Part II of
Volume I, from 1517 to 1685, covers
religious liberty in the Reformation,
the wars of religion, refugees in
England and on the Continent, the
Roman Catholic experiences with
persecution, and the impact of the
radical reformers. The volume ends
with a study of denominationalism
and religious liberty, oppression,
and enlightenment. Volume II
traces first the religious refugees
from the Old World to the New
and then the mass movements of
religious populations brought on by
revolutions and two world wars.

The reviewer found Norwood’s
history of the Waldensian migra-
tion especially interesting and clari-
fying. He was pleased also with the
manner in which Professor Norwood
covers and objectively reports the
Mennonite migrations of the past
four centuries. He appreciates also

the way in which the author clari-
fied the position of John Wesley on
religious persecution. The book,
however, is not a history of any
particular group but it covers the
whole range of religious persecution
which resulted in migrations and
the slow growth of a new under-
standing of freedom as well as of
the true nature of the church. In
one sense, the book is almost an
encyclopedia, but it is much more
than that; it is a well- written, high-
ly readable account of a significant
aspect of the history of civilization.

Of special interest to Mennonite
readers will be chapter 9 in Volume
I on the “Radical Reformers,”
which gives a fair treatment of the
Anabaptists, Hutterites, and Menno-
nites. In Vol. II at least two chap-
ters are devoted to the Mennonites.
Chapter 24 is on the “Mennonites
to 1914” and chapter 25 on “The
Alexanderwohl Mennonite Migra-
ration.” Many other references to
the Mennonites are scattered
through other chapters. The author
makes good use of the Mennonite
Encyclopedia, the Mennonite Quar-
terly Review and other references
pertaining to the Mennonites.

— Melvin Gingerich

I would like to dodge the draft-

dodgers hut . . . By Frank H. Epp,

Editor, and others, Waterloo and

Winipeg: Canada: Conrad Press.

1970. 95 pp. $1.95.

This is a tract for the times such
as the early Anabaptists wrote. It
bears some of the same onus of
“illegality” and suspicion in the
minds of most Christians that those
earlier tracts did.

The chapter titles suggest the
facets of the issue that are dealt
with: “. . . my own history allows
me no escape,” “. . . the new mili-
tarism makes its harsh demands,”
“. . . a man’s conscience must be
respected,” “. . . the jails are already
full,” “. . . they are up against the
Canadian border,” “. . . Christianity
demands a positive response,”
“. . . some churches and their lead-
ers are calling for help,” “. . . they
are coming to our chapel looking
for jobs.”

The similarities between this con-
troversial current trend and that
mixed bag of religious conviction
and economic/political/social forces
that brought the earliest Mennonites
to the shores of the U. S. and Can-
ada are striking and more than
superficial. It appears that history
does repeat itself and the super-
ficialities turn out to be the exter-
nal differences. The heart of the
matter is remarkably the same in
that the state has once again subtly
molded the church into its own
shape and has sold it a bill of

goods (a permanent peacetime con-
scription program) to a once dis-
cerning people for the award of
certain special privileges.

It is ironical that we should en-
joy the favoritism shown us by our
government and be content to see
a major principle of our faith, name-
ly, personal choice, be denied those
who do not have our heritage of
faith. Our Anabaptist heritage is
not only that we desire freedom of
religion for ourselves, but that
everyone is entitled to this freedom
within reasonable bounds and that
the exercise of the state’s God-given
function does not depend upon uni-
formity of faith and practice.

This paperback book consists of a
compilation of articles written by
nine reputable authors: Frank H.
Epp, former editor of The Canadian
Mennonite; John A. Lapp, Execu-
tive Secretary, Peace Section of The
Mennonite Central Committee; John
C. Lott; Jon M. Webb; Jim Wil-
cox; Walter Klassen (faculty mem-
ber at Conrad Grebel College) ; Jim
Wert; Leonard Epp, and Bob Neu-
feld. It can easily be read in one
hour. Like the forbidden tracts of
Reformation days, the book lists no
price and no place to order. Pre-
sumably it can be ordered by writ-
ing Walter Klassen at Conrad Gre-
bel College, Waterloo, Ontario. The
price is $1.95. Perhaps it is best
that it is written so largely from
the Canadian viewpoint since that
is the country that has to deal with
the problems our dodgers/deserters
foist upon them. For those of us
in the States with other troubles
enough, these young men are “out
of sight — out of mind” unless one
happens to be a son, relative, or
acquaintance.

Before we come to too precipi-
tous a conclusion about this position
and these young men, we should
remind ourselves of Canada’s Prime
Minister, Pierre Elliott Trudeau’s
aspiration: “We hope that Canada
will be a refuge from militarism. . .”

— Gerald C. Studer

Hans Herr. By J. C. Wenger. Lan-
caster, Pa.: Hans Herr House Res-
toration Committee. 1970. 10 pp

$3.00.

Hans Herr, a monograph includ-
ing an art print of the water color
painting by Andrew Wyeth of the
Bishop’s 1719 house, has been pub-
lished by the Lancaster Mennonite
Conference Historical Society of
2215 Mill Stream Road, Lancaster,
Pa. 17602. It sells for $3.00 per
copy (Pa. residents add 180 sales
tax for each copy ordered) and is
mailed first class to insure prompt
arrival. This publication is a part
of a broader program to restore the
(Continued on Page 8)

8

MENNONITE HISTORICAL BULLETIN

BOOK REVIEWS

(Continued from Page 7)

Hans Herr house recently purchased
by the Society from the Huber fami-
ly. The full color reproduction of
the painting is a limited edition
and is not available in quantity for
resale.

The distinguished American con-
temporary artist, Andrew Wyeth,
is himself a descendant of Bishop
Hans Herr. The print bound in
with the pages of this booklet may
be removed and is suitable for fram-
ing. It measures 11 by 8 V 2 inches.

J. C. Wenger, also a, descendant
of the subject, Hans Herr, has writ-
ten the 10 -page essay entitled “The
Lancaster Mennonite Patriarch.”
It is an eminently readable and
factual account of this early Men-
nonite leader’s life and work.

The booklet is further enhanced
by photographs of Hans Herr, a
doorway of the house, the stairway,
and the huge fireplace. This is an
excellent gift item for friends and
children/grandchildren.

The publication is an attractive
and worthy tribute to and momento
of this important early churchman,
but the printing by the Intelligencer
Printing Company is not as skillful
as one could wish. The text is
marred by “ghosting” and the re-
versal of accepted practice whereby
the text is in light-face type and
the bibliographical reference in
bold face. The house to be restored
is a fine example of an early colon-
ial dwelling and meetinghouse in
the Mennonite tradition of simplicity
and sturdiness.

It would seem highly desirable
that some arrangement be made so
that a copy of Dr. Wenger’s essay
on the man and his house and a re-
production of the Wyeth painting be
available to visitors to the house
once the restoration is complete.

— Gerald C. Studer

Dutch Anabaptism. By Cornelius

Krahn. The Hague, Netherlands:

Martinus Nijhoff. 1968. Pp. 303.

Guilders 36.75 or about $10.50.

This book describes the Anabap-
tism of the Low Countries from its
earliest traceable beginnings to the
end of the sixteenth century. The
major part of the book is devoted to
the hundred years preceding the
death of Menno Simons in 1561. It
was nearly a hundred years (not a
decade, as the Preface says) before
the Netherlands gained full inde-
pendence and the Anabaptists were
granted relative freedom. This dis-
cussion elaborates in rich detail the
origins of Dutch Anabaptism in the
Sacramentarian Movement of the
Low Countries in distinction from
the direct separation of the Swiss

Anabaptists from the emerging Re-
formed Church movement led by
Ulrich Zwingli.

The research of Dr. Krahn under-
lying this book was made possible
through a leave of absence from
Bethel College, a Social Science Re-
search Council Fellowship, and
grants from the American Philo-
sophical Society. The author is em-
inently qualified for this study as is
shown by his having authored a dis-
sertation toward his Th.D. degree
from Heidelberg on Menno Simons
and the Anabaptist view of the
church, his co-editorship of the
Mennonite Encyclopedia, his editor-
ship of the quarterly magazine Men-
nonite Life since its inception in
1946, and his position as Director
of the Bethel College Historical
Library.

He seems indeed to have investi-
gated all roots of thought which cul-
minated in the origin of Dutch Ana-
baptism by examining both the na-
tive Dutch influences and those
coming from such centers as Witten-
berg, Zurich, Strassburg, Antwerp,
Emden, Cologne, and Munster.

The meaning and significance of
the sacraments were the primary is-
sues which caused the ultimate ref-
ormation of the Netherlands, accord-
ing to Krahn. He explains that to
deny the actual and bodily presence
of the Lord in the eucharist in that
day could possibly be compared
with a report today that certain
towns were being invaded by living
beings from another planet. A Dutch
scholar is quoted as acknowledging
that with few exceptions the history
of Anabaptism constitutes the his-
tory of the Reformation in the Neth-
erlands from 1530-1566. A state-
ment by Erasmus in response to
Oecolampad’s treatise on the Lord’s
Supper reveals his surprising reso-
lution of the problem he faced when
his intellectual powers came into
conflict with his obedience to the
Roman Church.

The next most prominent issue in
Dutch Anabaptism was the renewal
of the eschatological hope. Although
Melchior Hoffman played a promi-
nent part in the emerging Dutch
Anabaptism, he never approved of
the militant variety of chiliasm and
it was only after his imprisonment in
Strassburg that the peaceful and
militant views became distinct and
controversial issues in the Nether-
lands. But the radical attempts by
such leaders as Jan Matthijsz and
Jan van Leiden in Munster and else-
where gave the Sacramentarian
Anabaptist movement a stigma and
a loss in popularity from which it
never recovered. The contemporary
attempts of the peaceful chiliasts to

dissociate themselves from the mili-
tants were never successful so far as
the public was concerned.

Krahn brings a variety of signifi-
cant data to the surface: the only
description known cf Menno Simons,
written by a ferryman who once
had Menno as a passenger, is here
noted for the first time and given
in full; the discovery of a Confession
of Faith written by the Anabaptist
leader, Thonis von Sasserath, and
unknown until the recent discovery
by J. F. G. Goeters is cited; the se-
cret recognition procedure used by
the Anabaptists is described; an ex-
planation is given of the literacy so
generally found among the Anabap-
tists even though they came usually
from the lower classes in the Neth-
erlands; the presence of semi- or
half Anabaptists in the Netherlands
is shown in correction of the impres-
sion left by the Mennonite Encyclo-
pedia that they were found only
among the Swiss; the statement that
the Dutch did not develop any pecu-
liarities in appearance, speech or be-
havior that made them outwardly
recognizable is made; and the obser-
vation that only in those places
v/here the Reformed faith prevailed
(not the Catholic or Lutheran) were
there ever any public disputations
with the Anabaptists.

The author suggests additional
studies that are needed in connec-
tion with the full story of early
Dutch Anabaptism and hopefully
these will be picked up by those
pursuing doctoral degrees in church
history. An apparently elusive topic
which this reviewer would like to
see investigated more thoroughly is
the extent to which a Biblical vari-
ety of what is too-commonly mis-
named “universalism” was to be
found among the belief of some of
the early Anabaptists.

Dr. Krahn’s work is generally
very satisfying both in its compre-
hensiveness and in its clarity. I did
wish he might have included a few
illustrations as, for example, of the
medals struck by Jan van Leiden to
symbolize his new status as the King
of the New Zion. One or more maps
would have proven very helpful to
the reader.

The book is generally well-printed
in good-sized clear typeface and
well-bound in a paperbacked bind-
ing. There are typographical errors
on pages 19, 42, 43, 100, 132, 170(2),
172, 179, 223, and 255. There are
also some word divisions after the
European manner that will be sur-
prising to the American Reader such
as thin-king (p. 50), char-ge (76),
bey-ond (80), pre-ached and rea-
ched (86) .

— Gerald C. Studer